Descendants of Irish-Australian outlaw Ned Kelly have been given the go-ahead to give their ancestor a private burial.
The attorney general of the state of Victoria in Australia, Robert Clark, has issued an exhumation licence which means Kelly’s headless remains will be returned to his descendents.
Kelly, who along with his brother and two friends formed the Kelly Gang, was sentenced to death and hanged in 1880 over the killing of three policemen.
The son of Irish immigrants, Kelly fell foul of the law from an early age and spent time in prison at the age of 15 for stealing a horse.
Following an altercation with a policeman at his home in 1878, Kelly fled into the bush and went into hiding.
Three policemen who went looking for him were killed although Kelly insisted they were shot in self-defence.
He robbed a number of banks and was eventually captured dressed in a home-made metal suit of armour at Glenrowan, north Victoria.
The rest of the gang – Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne – were killed in siege.
Before his death, Kelly dictated a letter known as the “Jerilderie Letter” which placed on the record his desire for justice for both his family and the poor Irish settlers of Victoria’s northeast.
It was published in 1930 by the Melbourne Herald.