Ronnie Biggs time from first meeting to Biggs's flight to Brazil. In 1970, when Biggs arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil did not have an extradition treaty with the United Kingdom. In 1971, Biggs's eldest son, Nicholas, aged 10, died in a car crash in Melbourne. In 1974, "Daily Express" reporter Colin MacKenzie received information suggesting that Biggs was in Rio de Janeiro; a team consisting of MacKenzie, photographer Bill Lovelace and reporter Michael O'Flaherty confirmed this and broke the story. Scotland Yard detective Jack Slipper arrived soon afterwards, but Biggs could not be extradited because his girlfriend, nightclub dancer Raimunda de
Ronnie Biggs in 1976. Allowed by authorities to remain in Australia, she reverted to her maiden name of Brent and sold her story for £40,000 to an Australian media group to enable her to purchase the rented house that the family had lived in at the time of Biggs's flight to Brazil. Charmian later undertook a degree and became an editor, publisher and journalist. Her sons—who later visited Biggs a few times in Brazil— live anonymously. In 2012 Charmian acted as a consultant on the five-part ITV Studios docu-drama "Mrs Biggs"—in which she was played by actor Sheridan Smith—which recounts the couple's