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Ned Kelly: Hero Or Villain?

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Ned Kelly: Hero or Villain?

Whether Ned Kelly is actually a ruthless criminal, or a hero who fought for the rights of the marginalized is a topic that has been debated since the days of Kelly himself. However, with the amount of crimes that Ned committed in the name of ‘justice’, it is hard to say that he is in fact a hero. However, this resentment that Ned held for the police force, may have sprout from the influence of Harry Power, a fellow bushranger, or even have been passed down through heritage, as the Irish mistrusted the British police. This suggests that the ruthless criminal, Ned Kelly, may not have conjured up ideas about the police being ‘evil’ on his own, instead being shaped by others, and that he used the excuse of citizens …show more content…

• The family lived in the Victorian ranges, which were North of Melbourne, and on the edge of the ‘squatters rich lands’, where they made a small living.
• Ned’s father was arrested for horse stealing when attempting to add to the family’s income, and spent time in jail until the 27th of September 1866, when he died.
• Ned attended school in Avenel until his father’s death, when his newly poor mother was forced to move them to a hut in Eleven Mile Creek where Ellen’s father, James, owned a cattle run.
• Kelly left school to lend his grandfather a hand in the business, performing jobs such as ring barking, breaking in horses, mustering cattle and fencing.
• This was also when Kelly began to have trouble with the police, with accusations of stolen horses and cattle, which were never proven to be true. This may have also been the start of Kelly’s resentment of the police …show more content…

In 1870, Ned Kelly was jailed for three years after assaulting a hawker (street trader) and owning a stolen horse, attempting to save himself by claiming that he had borrowed the horse from Isaiah ‘Wild’ Wright and was not aware that this horse was actually stolen. Some accounts state that Ned was actually in possession of Harry Power’s horse when this happened instead, and was released for lake of evidence. These different accounts are shown on the

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