Posts Tagged ‘Ned Kelly’
Roused from sleep on a wintry midnight in 1880, Ned Kelly told a solicitor representing him at the murder hearing due to begin hours later that, regardless of the outcome, all he wanted was a full and fair trial so the public could see that he had acted under strong provocation and was “not the monster I have been made out”.
The remark anticipated the continuing divide between those who regard him as an iconic Australian larrikin and those who damn him as a murdering villain.
Although charged with a capital crime, Ned’s trial in the Melbourne Supreme Court was rushed, taking a mere 2 days. The judge presiding was Sir Redmond Barry.
Barry was unsympathetic to offenders and developed a reputation for harshness. He once sentenced a man to 12 years hard labour – two of them in irons – for stealing a few trinkets from a travelling salesman. As the media reported at the time:
So convinced is he of the hideousness of having the land overridden with fugitive convicts that he doles out to every bondman (ex-convict) that comes under his lash nearly one-half more punishment than he awards to those who, having come to the country free, have deserted the path of virtue.
– The Argus, 15 February 1853
Ned and Judge Barry had a famous verbal clash, ending with Barry declaring the sentence of death with the traditional: ‘May God have mercy on your soul‘. Ned responded “I will go a little further than that, and say I will see you there where I go.”
Ned was hanged on November 11th, 1880. Sir Redmond Barry died from a carbuncle on November 23rd. If anyone is in hell, it’s Judge Barry.
Poor old Ned. He was 25 years old.
