Radicals' son wins Oxford place

Historic Oxford will be soon home to the student activist

The son of two American radicals serving life sentences for armed robbery, has won a Rhodes scholarship to attend the University of Oxford.

Chesa Boudin, 22, whose parents were members of the left-wing guerrilla movement Weather Underground, is one of 32 students from the United States to be chosen for the prestigious scholarship.

His parents, Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, were jailed in 1982 for their part in the robbery in which a security guard and two police officers were shot dead.

Mr Boudin, who plans to study international development at Oxford, is active in criminal justice reform and has spoken around the United States about the problems facing children of prison inmates.

I've gotten used to it, in a tragic way. It's deeply saddening

Chesa Boudin

The scholarship, established in the will of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes in 1902, is worth about £20,000 a year.

Elliot Gerson, American secretary of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust, said: "He has a combination of very high academic achievement and a very strong character and commitment to helping others."

As a 14-month old, Chesa was left with a babysitter while his parents took part in the £1.1m heist from a Brink's truck in New York state in 1981.

Getaway truck

Boudin's father drove the getaway truck and was sentenced to 75 years-to-life.

His mother, a passenger in the truck, was sentenced to 20 years-to-life and was denied parole in 2001.

Mr Boudin, from Chicago, has so far been unable to tell them of his scholarship.

He told the New York Times: "I've gotten used to it, in a tragic way. It's deeply saddening."

During its brief history, Weather Underground carried out about 24 bomb attacks in the US in pursuit of "an inter-racial movement for the poor".