Ned Kelly body mystery solved at last

Kelly, who led a gang of bank robbers in Victoria, was hanged in 1880. His final resting place was unknown, although it was long suspected his body lay alongside 33 other executed inmates.

Officials pinpointed the location of the site in 2008 and later exhumed the bodies. A DNA sample from one of Kelly’s descendants confirmed one of the skeletons – which was missing most of its skull – was that of the notorious Ned, said Victoria attorney general Robert Clark.

“To think a group of scientists could identify the body of a man who was executed more than 130 years ago, moved and buried in a haphazard fashion among 33 other prisoners, most of whom are not identified, is amazing,” Mr Clark said.

Kelly, whose father was an Irish convict, led a gang that robbed banks and killed policemen from 1878 to 80. He is considered by many Australians to be something of a Robin Hood character, fighting the British colonial authorities and championing the rural Irish underclass.

Stephen Cordner, director of the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, said tests uncovered evidence of shotgun wounds that matched those Kelly suffered. “The wear and tear of the skeleton is a little bit more than would be expected for a 25-year-old today,” he said. “But such was Ned’s life, this is hardly surprising.”