Train robber Ronnie Biggs is to get married in prison - despite suffering ill-health and still having 28 years to serve.

A family spokeswoman said Biggs, 72, was to marry Raimunda Rothen, the mother of his son Michael, on Wednesday.

She said the ceremony, which would be a small family occasion, had been planned after Biggs proposed to Rothen four times.

The service at 1000 BST will be attended by Michael, 27, his girlfriend Veronica and their two-year-old daughter Ingrid, plus a handful of guests.

The former fugitive is in a hospital wing of top-security Belmarsh Prison, in south-east London, partially paralysed after a number of strokes.

The wedding could give Ronnie's son Michael a UK passport

His health has been described as "precarious", and there have been claims he can now speak only in grunts.

Raimunda, 54, who currently lives in Switzerland, has visited Biggs several times since he gave up his life on the run and returned to the UK in May last year.

She was "extremely worried" about his ailing health and accepted his most recent proposal because she feared he was nearing the end of his life, said the spokeswoman.

"Ronnie has expressed himself delighted that Raimunda has finally agreed to marry him. He has always believed it to be the best way of keeping the family together," she added.

Family life

It was reported on Tuesday that Michael Biggs could get a British passport following the wedding.

His application was being reviewed "in the light of relevant circumstances", the Home Office told BBC News Online.

The Brazilian citizen, whose girlfriend and child live in Brazil, wants to be able to travel freely between the two countries.

Biggs spent about 35 years on the run in Brazil

He had previously been refused a UK passport, but had been appealing this under human rights legislation which he said protected his right to family life.

Biggs was caught and jailed for his part in an ambush on a Glasgow-to-London night train in 1963.

But he escaped from Wandsworth Prison in 1965 and fled abroad, spending most of his time in Rio de Janeiro.

Biggs left Brazil in May last year to serve out the rest of his 30-year jail sentence in Britain.