PCC to investigate Sun's role in Biggs' return

Matt Wells, media correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday May 8 2001 07.24 BST

The Sun yesterday insisted that there was a "massive public interest defence" in paying for Ronnie Biggs to return from exile in Brazil to prison in Britain.

Pressure on the paper intensified when the press complaints commission (PCC) said it would investigate the issues raised by the affair: paying convicted criminals is a breach of the editor's code of conduct, unless a newspaper can demonstrate there was a significant public interest for doing so.

But the Sun said that it had considered the PCC code before it embarked upon the stunt, and pointed out that it had facilitated the return to prison of a convicted criminal at no cost to the British taxpayer.

It has been reported that the newspaper paid £44,000 to Biggs's family or associates. Some £20,000 is said to have gone to his son, Michael; Biggs's fellow train robber Bruce Reynolds and his son Nick, who travelled on the Sun's chartered plane to Rio, are said to have received £12,000 each.

Payments to criminals are covered by section 16 of the editor's code, which was tightened in the wake of the Fred and Rosemary West murders, when at least seven witnesses sold their stories to national newspapers for between £750 and £100,000.

Section 16.2 says: "Payment or offers of payment for stories, pictures or information, must not be made directly or through agents to convicted or confessed criminals or to their associates - who may in clude family, friends and colleagues - except where the material concerned ought to be published in the public interest and payment is necessary for this to be done."

The Sun's editor, David Yelland, is understood to be confident that his public interest defence will succeed.

The PCC's definition is fairly wide: it "includes" exposing crime, protecting public health and safety and preventing the public from being misled. While the Biggs case does not appear to fall within any of these categories, the list is not exhaustive, and Mr Yelland will be expected to provide a detailed explanation for the paper's decision to facilitate the return to Britain of Biggs.

In a statement, the paper said: "The requirements of the PCC code relating to payments to convicted criminals were fully taken into account before we took the decision to fly Ronnie Biggs home.

"We are, as always, happy to cooperate with the PCC and will be making clear to them the massive public interest in returning a convicted criminal home to face British justice and at no cost to the British taxpayer."

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