An Australian farmer who has admitted to stealing the skull of the legendary outlaw, Ned Kelly, has said he wants to rehabilitate Kelly's image.

The farmer, Tom Baxter, said he'll hand the skull back to the authorities, only if Ned Kelly is granted a posthumous pardon and reburied in consecrated ground.

Kelly led a gang of outlaws in a series of bank robberies and horse thefts, and was hanged for murder a-hundred-and-twenty years ago. He became a folk hero in Australia as a symbol of resistance against repressive authority.

Mr Baxter stole the skull from a prison twenty-two years ago in protest at the way it was being displayed as a police trophy.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service