What was claimed
The Kray twins were never let out.
Our verdict
Reggie Kray was released early on compassionate grounds after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. His brother Ronnie died in hospital after collapsing in prison.
Claim about the Kray Twins and great train robbers’ prison releases are false
27 February 2020
What was claimed
The Great Train Robbery robbers served at least 30 years.
Our verdict
Several of those involved in the Great Train Robbery were sentenced to 30 years in prison. But none that we’re aware of served the whole 30 years for that crime.
What was claimed
We let convicted terrorists out.
Our verdict
People convicted of terrorism related offences can be let out of prison, though they can also be sentenced to life in prison.
A Facebook post, shared over 8,000 times, has claimed that the Kray twins were never released from prison, the “train robbers” served at least 30 years, yet the UK lets out convicted terrorists.
The Kray twins were both sentenced to life in prison in 1969 after being found guilty of murder. One twin, Reggie, was freed from prison on compassionate grounds in the year 2000. The Home Office allowed this because he’d been diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer. He died a few months after his release.
His twin Ronnie died in hospital in 1995, two days after having collapsed at Broadmoor high security psychiatric hospital.
The Great Train Robbery in 1963 involved a number of people hijacking a Post Office train and stealing £2.3 million (around £50 million today). Several men were sentenced to 30 years in prison for their involvement, but none of them served that many years as far as we’re aware. Many were released after serving part of their sentence, some appealed and had their sentences reduced, while others escaped and were later re-arrested. Some were imprisoned again later for separate crimes.
As for the claim about convicted terrorists being released, a recent example of this is the case of Usman Khan, who killed two people on 29 November 2019 in a terrorist attack on London Bridge. In the aftermath, it emerged that he had a previous conviction for offences related to terrorism from 2012 and had been released on licence in December 2018. You can read more about the sentencing and early release rules that led to that decision here.
The government says that between January 2013 and December 2019, 196 people convicted of a terrorist offence had been released from prison in England and Wales. It added that over that same period, six people convicted of a terrorist offence and released had been convicted of a further terrorist offence.
There are a wide range of offences that are described as “terrorist offences”, and it is possible to receive a life sentence for some convictions relating to terrorism.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as partly false because one of the Kray twins was released, and none of those involved in the Great Train Robbery served the 30 years they were initially sentenced to, but convicted terrorists can be released from prison.