Thread: Australian Olympian accused of baby murder

No time for five babies: Keli Lane accused
KIM ARLINGTON
August 10, 2010

Keli Lane had a clear idea of what she wanted to achieve in the run-up to the Sydney Olympics.

An elite athlete, she enjoyed a busy social life and was determined to represent Australia when women's water polo was contested as an Olympic event for the first time in 2000.

Raising a child had no part in that plan, the Supreme Court heard yesterday.

So when Ms Lane became pregnant five times between 1992 and 1999, she allegedly resolved to avoid the responsibility. Her first two pregnancies were terminated. Two babies were secretly carried to term and adopted out, in 1995 and 1999. Her fourth pregnancy was also hidden from her family, friends and boyfriend. The little girl, born at Auburn Hospital on September 12, 1996, was named Tegan. Ms Lane is now accused of her murder.

The only people who suspected she was pregnant were water polo teammates ... Keli Lane arrives at court yesterday

As her trial began yesterday, the Crown Prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, said Ms Lane was a young woman with an active social life and sex life - and an ''overriding ambition to represent Australia''.

''A child was not part of this picture,'' he said. She did not want ''to be saddled with the responsibility of having a child'' and had sought ''a permanent solution to all these five pregnancies''.

On September 14, 1996, four or five hours after leaving Auburn Hospital, Ms Lane attended a wedding with her then boyfriend. The Crown alleges Tegan was murdered in the hours between her discharge and the wedding.

Mr Tedeschi said it might seem strange that somebody would be able to conceal three pregnancies from those around them but ''each of these three pregnancies that went to full term was completely hidden by the accused''.

Ms Lane allegedly disguised her figure with sloppy joes and jumpers tied around her waist.

The only people who suspected she was pregnant were water polo teammates. Curious about why she covered herself with a towel until slipping into the pool, they put on their goggles and checked her out underwater in her swimming costume, Mr Tedeschi said. But they said nothing and neither did Ms Lane.

She even played in a grand final for her Balmain club just hours before she went into labour for the first time, in 1995.

The jury heard she disappeared from post-match drinks at the Bridge Hotel and took herself to nearby Balmain Hospital with contractions.

Ms Lane, 35, has pleaded not guilty to Tegan's murder and to three counts of perjury relating to affidavits signed by her.

The court heard there was no evidence she suffered from post-natal depression or any mental disturbance. She allegedly resumed her usual sporting, social and sexual activities after giving birth and nobody noticed anything amiss.

At the wedding she attended the day she allegedly murdered Tegan, she seemed her normal self. Ms Lane was afraid her family would abandon her if they learnt of her pregnancies, Mr Tedeschi said. Her fears were not realised when her family did eventually find out.

He said the other ''bizarre'' aspect of the case was why someone from a solid family, who was getting a tertiary education, would fall pregnant five times.

Although Ms Lane was taking the contraceptive pill, she drank heavily and would keep up with the boys. When there was ''a lot of drinking … a lot of chucking'', the pill may not have been absorbed, Mr Tedeschi said. ''Maybe she wasn't taking it properly; who knows?''

A few weeks after Tegan was born, Ms Lane began coaching water polo at Ravenswood School for Girls.

The fact she signed up for the job before the birth ''shows only too vividly that she had no intention of ever taking Tegan home'', Mr Tedeschi said.

The trial continues.

No time for five babies: Keli Lane accused of murder

(^ lost connection just after posting this)

no evidence she suffered from post-natal depression or any mental disturbance. Well it's hardly normal behaviour I'd say 'mental disturbance is a rather polite starting point.

this whole story is just so strange - the water polo team-mates who said nothing. What a team. I just find it incredible she could hide 5 pregnancies as an athlete I expect she was fairly slim and bump would have been obvious - a far cry from the stories of big women who find they're having a baby by surprise.

Beyond me . . .

August 12, 2010

Prosecutors could not prove Tegan Lane was dead, let alone that the baby was murdered by her mother, the defence team for Keli Lane contends.

The Crown detailed its allegations over the first three days of Ms Lane's Supreme Court trial. Yesterday her defence barrister, Keith Chapple, SC, outlined her side of the story, and disputed fundamental aspects of the prosecution case.

''They cannot prove how, when, where or even why Keli Lane would murder her newborn child,'' he told the jury. ''They cannot even prove that that child is dead. This woman, the accused, has never killed anybody.''

Ms Lane, 35, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Tegan. She is accused of killing the two-day-old girl on September 14, 1996, the day they left Auburn Hospital.

The Crown yesterday withdrew an earlier suggestion that Tegan may have been disposed of at the Olympic site at Homebush. The prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, told the jury there was no evidence at all of what happened to Tegan after Ms Lane left hospital and he "ought not to have speculated about the Olympic site" as there was no evidence it had been searched.

The court has heard that over the course of seven years, Ms Lane - a former member of the Australian junior water polo team - terminated two pregnancies and secretly gave birth to two other children she gave up for adoption. The prosecution has alleged that she murdered Tegan.

The Crown alleges Ms Lane wanted to avoid the responsibility of bringing up a child as she pursued an active social life and because of her ambition to compete at the Sydney Olympics.

Mr Chapple questioned whether it was a logical motive that ''you murder a baby because you want to play water polo'' and disputed the allegation that Ms Lane took ''the criminal step, the extraordinary and amazing step'' of killing Tegan to continue her life unburdened.

Rather, he said, she ''took the responsible course with that baby, Tegan, giving it to the natural father''.

Ms Lane told police she gave newborn Tegan to the child's father, a man named Andrew Morris or Norris, with whom she had a brief affair. Mr Tedeschi said Morris/Norris was ''a totally fictitious person invented by the accused'', and that extensive searches had found no trace of him or Tegan. But Mr Chapple said names might have been changed, they might not be in the country, or Tegan's father might not have given his real name in the first place.

Aaron Tyack, who had a committed relationship with Ms Lane ending in 1994, was the first witness called at the trial.

He said when she unexpectedly fell pregnant, they decided on a termination - something that was not taken lightly.

He recalled meeting her at the Manly ferry terminal after the procedure. She was ''very upset, putting on a brave face'', he said.

The court heard Mr Tyack was a sprint kayaker, and he and Ms Lane were both looking to go to the Olympics. Ms Lane also had an interest in teaching, Mr Tyack said. ''She always loved kids.''

The trial continues.

Murder trial | No proof Keli Lane's baby is dead, court told

17 August 2010

KELI LANE gave her first child up for adoption, saying she would not be a good parent if she did not try to achieve her potential, the Supreme Court heard yesterday.

Ms Lane, a water polo champion, told the adoption agency she had missed out on national selection because she was pregnant. Within months of the birth, she had won a place in the Australian team competing in Canada.

According to the agency's records, tendered at her trial, she ''wishes to finish her education and pursue her sporting career … She believes she would not parent well if she did not attempt to achieve her full potential; to try to do both would be unfair to [the baby].''

Ms Lane's first child was taken into foster care days after birth, before the planned adoption.

Records show Ms Lane wept during most of the initial interview with the adoption agency worker Sheila Townsend. The court has heard this was the first of three full-term pregnancies Ms Lane kept secret from her partner, family and friends. Two earlier pregnancies were terminated, the jury has heard.

Her first and third children were adopted out. She is accused of murdering her second baby, Tegan. No trace has been found of the girl since Ms Lane left Auburn Hospital on September 14, 1996, two days after Tegan's birth.

Prosecutors allege that children were not part of the picture as Ms Lane pursued her dream to represent Australia at the Sydney Olympics. The Crown asserts that Ms Lane found the process of adopting out her first child more complicated and harrowing than she expected and, not wanting to go through it again, murdered Tegan.

Ms Lane, 35, denies having killed her baby. She maintains she gave the newborn to the child's natural father, a man named Andrew Norris.

Ms Townsend, who was co-ordinator of the first adoption, took the jury through notes from the agency's file yesterday.

''Keli was frequently in tears'' but determined to go ahead with the adoption. ''She was grieving the loss of her child in anticipation,'' Ms Townsend said.

The court heard Ms Lane had several access visits with the baby, cuddling the child, exclaiming over how much it had grown and how ''beautiful'' it was.

Visiting the proposed adoptive parents, she shared her reasons for giving the baby up. When someone asked her if she wished she had a baby too, she replied, ''Sometimes I do,'' and wept.

The Crown alleges Ms Lane was lying when she told the agency that her parents, and the baby's father, were aware of the pregnancy and birth.

Keli Lane gave up baby to chase goal

Teammate spied on Lane's 'huge' torso
Bellinda Kontominas
August 26, 2010

CURIOUS about her weight gain and the way she covered up with a towel, Keli Lane's water polo teammates ''spied'' on her huge stomach while wearing goggles underwater, a court has heard.

Stacey Gaylard told the Supreme Court that before a training session in May or June 1996, Ms Lane wore tracksuit pants while her teammates wore shorts in the warm aquatic centre.

Ms Lane, 35, is accused of murdering her second child, Tegan, two days after her birth on September 12, 1996. Prosecutors say she kept three pregnancies secret so she could play water polo at the Sydney Olympics in 2000. She had two terminations and her first and third children were given up for adoption.

Ms Gaylard said she and another teammate, Tarryn Woods, had used goggles to look at Ms Lane's body underwater after she had ''drawn attention to herself'' by covering up with a towel.

''She sat down on the pool deck and slipped the towel off and pulled it to the side and slipped into the water,'' said Ms Gaylard, who had played with Ms Lane in representative sides as well as a Balmain women's water polo team.

''What business was it of yours?'' asked Justice Anthony Whealey.

''The fact that Keli looked huge around the torso, I guess we wanted to have a closer look,'' she said. ''Keli's stomach was large.''

She said Ms Lane had not said anything to her about being pregnant and she did not ask. ''We thought if Keli wanted us to know she'd come and tell us.'' .

Earlier, a man told the court he was shocked to discover he fathered one of Ms Lane's children after a brief relationship with her in mid-1994. The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, wiped his eye while telling the court he learned of his paternity after providing a DNA sample during a 2005 inquest into Tegan's disappearance.

Teammate spied on Lane's 'huge' torso

surely they had a break - the trial began August 10.

'Successful golden girl' turned killer to keep secret, court told

November 22, 2010 - 2:35PM

Keli Lane hid her pregnancies and the births of three children because she did not want to dent her image as a "successful golden girl", the Supreme Court heard today.

With Ms Lane on trial charged with murdering her second baby, Tegan, the Crown prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, began his closing address before the jury.

Mr Tedeschi said Ms Lane had a successful, even enviable life. She enjoyed a good relationship with her parents, with whom she lived on the northern beaches; she was an elite water polo player who had represented Australia; she had a good education, a large circle of friends and "no shortage of boyfriends".

Advertisement: Story continues below
But Mr Tedeschi said there was unchallenged evidence that, over seven years in the 1990s, while supposedly being on the pill, Ms Lane fell pregnant five times.

All the pregnancies were unwanted, Mr Tedeschi said.

The first two were terminated but "three times she didn't realise she was pregnant until it was too late".

Ms Lane put her first and third children up for adoption but is accused of murdering Tegan two days after her birth in September 1996.

Ms Lane, 35, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Tegan, maintaining she gave the newborn to the baby's natural father. Neither Tegan nor the man Ms Lane named as the father, an Andrew Norris or Morris, has been located.

Mr Tedeschi said Ms Lane never had any intention of taking the babies home, and sought solutions that would permanently relieve her of the responsibility of caring for them.

She succeeded in hiding the pregnancies and births from everyone in her life by allegedly telling "numerous lies".

"She was not prepared to run any risk of denting this image she had of herself, that she believed other people had of her, of being this successful golden girl," Mr Tedeschi told the court.

"She was completely and utterly determined to prevent these hidden parts of her life, involving these three children, becoming known to her family, her friends, her colleagues, her sporting mates."

The trial continues.

Jury out in Keli Lane murder trial
Kim Arlington
December 6, 2010 - 11:32AM

The jury has retired to consider its verdict in the trial of Keli Lane, who is accused of murdering her baby daughter Tegan.

The NSW Supreme Court has heard that Tegan was the second of three children Ms Lane gave birth to without the knowledge of her family or friends.

Prosecutors told the court Ms Lane, 35, a former waterpolo star, was determined to compete at the Sydney Olympics and did not want to tarnish her "golden girl" image.

They alleged she wanted to avoid the responsibility of raising the children and sought a "permanent solution", adopting out her first and third babies and murdering Tegan in 1996.

Ms Lane is also charged with making three false statements on oath, relating to affidavits signed during adoption proceedings for the two other children.

Ms Lane has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

She told police she gave two-day-old Tegan to the baby's father, an Andrew Morris or Norris, at Auburn Hospital on September 14, 1996.

Police searches have not located Tegan or anyone matching the Morris/Norris description, the court has heard.

But the defence argued there was no evidence Tegan was dead, let alone that Ms Lane murdered her, and that numerous issues would give the jurors cause for reasonable doubt.

Almost four months after the trial began, Justice Anthony Whealy today sent the jury of six men and six men out to deliberate.

Originally Posted by genghis61

there was no evidence Tegan was dead

No habeus corpus, no hab case.

Originally Posted by sabang

No habeus corpus, no hab case.

Well the prosecutor disagrees, they must have thought they had a reasonable chance of nailing her. You don't need a body to prove murder but it helps a lot.

a sick woman, lock her away forever

the longer it goes on, the less likely an agreed decision?

Keli Lane jury breaks for the weekend

Posted Fri Dec 10, 2010 2:54pm AEDT


Jurors in the trial of a Sydney athlete accused of murdering her baby will enter a sixth day of deliberations.

After a trial that started in August, the jury of six men and six women retired on Monday to consider its verdict.

The former Water Polo player is accused of murdering her baby Tegan soon after the baby was born in 1996.

Keli Lane told police she gave Tegan to the baby's father, a man named Andrew Morris or Norris, but the Crown claims that is a fictitious person.

Justice Anthony Whealy has told the jurors to take a break and put the matter out of their minds over the weekend.

They will resume their deliberations on Monday.

If she's guilty it says a lot about having a "win at all costs" attitude.

Found guilty:

Keli Lane Guilty of Murdering Baby Tegan in Sydney


On hearing the verdict, Lane sobbed and collapsed in the dock of the Supreme Court.

Lane screamed out, "Oh, no!" and fell to the floor. The court was closed as court officers, her lawyers and family members rushed to her aid.

A paramedic was called to attend to her.

Her mother, who was in the public gallery, also sobbed and many jurors had tears in their eyes.

In refusing to continue her bail, Justice Anthony Whealy said he didn't want to give Lane false hope as the crime she had been found guilty of carried a substantial sentence.

But, he said, he felt "great sympathy" for Lane.

As court officers attended Lane in the dock, the judge temporarily adjourned the hearing but told the jurors they would return shortly as he wished speak to them.

The verdict came after the jury deliberated for a week after a four-month trial.

Earlier, the jury also found Lane guilty of three counts of making a false statement on oath in relation to documents dealing with her adopting out two other babies.

Earlier today, the jury foreman told the judge, Anthony Whealy, they had not come to a unanimous verdict on the murder charge and it was unlikely that further deliberations would produce one.

Justice Whealy told the jury to continue discussions, giving them the option of returning a majority 11 to one verdict.

The case has intrigued the public for more than five years, since an inquest into Tegan's disappearance revealed the astonishing fact that Lane, 35, managed to keep three pregnancies secret from her family, friends and even her long-term boyfriend.

Tegan was the second of three babies she carried to term and delivered without those closest to her even suspecting she was pregnant.

She put her first and third babies up for adoption but a year ago Lane was charged with Tegan's murder.

Tegan Lee Lane was born on September 12, 1996.

Two days later, Lane left Auburn Hospital with her daughter. There was no sign of the baby when she attended a friend's wedding at Manly that afternoon and a nationwide investigation has found no trace of the child since.

At the trial, Lane pleaded not guilty and maintained she gave the newborn to the child's natural father.

In police interviews she named him as Andrew Morris or Norris, a Balmain resident with whom she had a brief affair.

In one of several different accounts given to social workers and police, she said that after Andrew agreed to raise the child, she handed two-day-old Tegan over to him, his mother and his de facto partner, Mel, at the hospital.

Over the years police have conducted a fruitless national search for Andrew.

Investigators tracked down men named Andrew Norris or Morris in the age bracket given by Lane, and ruled them out as having taken Tegan.

The prosecution contended the man she described had never existed.

The Crown case was that Lane murdered Tegan to rid herself of the responsibility of raising a child.

At the time she was a 21-year-old physical education student and water polo star, with dreams of making the Australian team at the Sydney Olympics.

She was also terrified of how her family and friends would react if they knew of her pregnancies and did not want to tarnish her "golden girl" image, Crown prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, told the court.

Mr Tedeschi said that when Lane fell pregnant five times over the course of seven years in the 1990s, she had sought "a permanent solution" to all the pregnancies, terminating the first two, adopting two babies out, and allegedly murdering Tegan.

But the defence said there was no proof that Tegan was dead, let alone that Lane had murdered her.

On the contrary, she had done the responsible thing by giving the baby to her natural father, defence barrister, Keith Chapple, SC, said.

The fact that she legally adopted out two other children supported her story that she had given Tegan into somebody else's care.

Mr Chapple said tens of thousand of girls remained unaccounted for after the police search for Tegan.

The failure to find Tegan or Andrew could be explained by names having been changed.

"If you are looking for a needle in a haystack and you are looking for the wrong name, the search is useless," Mr Chapple told the jury.

The trial began on August 9, with jurors hearing from about 80 witnesses and sifting through masses of documents.

But before sending the jury out to consider the verdicts, Justice Anthony Whealy pinpointed the basic issues.

He told them if there was a reasonable possibility Tegan was alive, or that Lane had handed her over to the father or anyone else, then they must acquit her of murder.

But if they were satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Lane caused Tegan's death by a deliberate act, and that it was done with the intent to kill her, she should be found guilty.

Kim Arlington is a Herald Court Reporter.

- with AAP

Originally Posted by Bazzy

In refusing to continue her bail, Justice Anthony Whealy said he didn't want to give Lane false hope as the crime she had been found guilty of carried a substantial sentence.

But, he said, he felt "great sympathy" for Lane.

I don't understand the sympathy aspect; if she is not insane/psychiatric problems then this has been an horrific cold-blooded murder, planned and carried out by this woman. I hope this 'sympathy' does not mean a light sentence.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/keli-lanes-problem-child-20101213-18vhu.html

Keli Lane's 'problem' child

Kim Arlington

December 14, 2010
Keli Lane police interview: Did you kill the child?

In a police interview in 2003 Keli Lane is asked point blank whether she killed baby Tegan. The video of the interview was released by the trial judge. Return for more excerpts.



SHE had been silent, seemingly serene, for the four months she was on trial. But when she was found guilty yesterday of murdering her newborn daughter, Tegan, Keli Lane unleashed an anguished wail, then collapsed in the dock of the Supreme Court.
Her cry of ''Oh, no'' was echoed in the gallery by her distraught mother, Sandra Lane, as court officers rushed to her aid and jurors fought back their own tears.
A paramedic tended to the convicted killer before she was taken into custody, to spend her first night in Silverwater women's prison.

Kelli Lane being led away by security officers at the Supreme court. Photo: Brendan Esposito


It was a day of high drama. Lane, 35, spent much of it in tears, the tension rising as word emerged of developments in the jury room where, Justice Anthony Whealy told observers, ''there's some emotion being experienced''.
Lane sobbed as the foreman pronounced her guilty of swearing three false statements in affidavits about her first and third babies, who were adopted out.
The jurors were deadlocked on the murder charge but, after being given the option of reaching a majority 11 to 1 verdict, returned after lunch to convict Lane of murdering her second child, Tegan, 14 years ago.
Unknown to the jury, when the prosecution closed its case last month, the defence asked Justice Whealy to direct Ms Lane's acquittal, arguing there was insufficient evidence to prove murder.
The judge refused, saying "any reservation I may have about the Crown case should not result in the matter being withdrawn from the jury".
Yesterday Justice Whealy expressed ''great sympathy'' for Lane, but said to release her on bail when she faced jail for her crimes would only give her ''false hope''.
Though the verdict provided a partial answer to the mystery of Tegan's fate, precisely what happened to the infant may never be explained.
Tegan's disappearance - her very existence - went unremarked for three years, until records uncovered of her birth at Auburn Hospital on September 12, 1996 prompted a missing person investigation.
Detectives grew sceptical of Lane's claim she had given Tegan, at two days old, to the baby's father.
In a 2003 police interview, a record of which was made public yesterday, Lane denied that she or anyone else had harmed Tegan. Asked if she killed the child, she replied, ''No, I did not. I did not do anything like that.''
As police searched unsuccessfully for Tegan, Lane's hidden life was exposed, first to her stunned inner circle, then - in explosive fashion - at an inquest and trial.
Her sexual liaisons, two abortions and the three pregnancies and births she concealed from everyone in her life were publicly raked over.
Two of her erstwhile lovers learnt through DNA testing that they had fathered children with her, a decade after she gave the babies up for adoption.
A former boyfriend, Duncan Gillies, never suspected she carried two babies to term during their four-year romance.
Prosecutors said that Lane, a water polo player with Olympic ambitions, wanted to preserve her ''golden girl'' image and life as she knew it, and that in the 1990s raising children did not feature in her plans.
A persistent theme of the lies she told hospital and adoption workers was that her parents disapproved when, in reality, they were oblivious to her pregnancies. Her mother and father, a retired policeman, Robert Lane, supported her in court.
Writing in October 1999 to the worker handling the adoption of her third child, Lane said her parents had disowned her. "People dropped off me when they realised that I was going to relinquish the babies,'' she said.
"Society says that this is wrong; society says that people who do this must be mad, slutty or cruel. I just don't agree."
The previous month she had been examined by a psychiatrist, Debra Montgomery.
While Lane seemed "at a loss herself to fully explain her erratic behaviour", Dr Montgomery found no sign of psychiatric disturbance and "no past history of psychiatric illness''.
Lane finally told her parents about Tegan in January 2004, when intensifying police inquiries forced her hand.
In an intercepted phone call played at the trial, Sandra Lane grappled with the revelation.
''You told me that this young guy's taken the baby to raise it,'' she said. ''It is really unusual, you must admit yourself, 'cause it's just so unlike a young bloke to want to raise a child. That's the thing I just can't sort of grip.''
By then Lane had a fourth child and was set to marry the father. She had said nothing to him of Tegan until the month before their wedding.
Police tapped their phone and bugged their house while she tried to explain her ''stupid choices'' and referred to Tegan as ''the problem''.
''I couldn't really care about the details because I just wanted the problem to go away,'' she said.
Lane and her husband have since split.
"I used to worry so much about wanting to be a sports star and … achieving these wonderful things," she confided to a friend in 2004, as police listened in. "But the only thing I'm really good at is being a mum."
Lane faces sentencing on February 25.

Originally Posted by genghis61

I don't understand the sympathy aspect

I say throw the book at her. Give her some consideration if she decides to come clean and tell the true story.

Lane hopes reward will prove her innocence
April 4, 2011 - 10:38AM



Keli Lane has protested her innocence and says police have not done enough to find the daughter she was convicted of murdering.

Speaking publicly for the first time since being convicted, the former water polo champion hopes a $500,000 reward offered by Channel Seven will encourage people to come forward with information on the whereabouts of her daughter Tegan.

In a series of recorded prison phone conversations between Lane and her fiance Patrick Cogan, broadcast on Seven's Sunday Night program, Lane revealed her anger and sadness at the conviction.

Lane was found guilty last December of murdering her second baby, Tegan, on September 14, 1996, after they left a Sydney hospital and before she went to a wedding.

She has always maintained Tegan is in the custody of her biological father, Andrew Norris (or Morris).

Extensive police investigations have failed to locate either Tegan or her father.

"How do they charge someone on the basis they cant find Andrew or they cant find Tegan, if they haven't even completed the searches?" she said.

"They're saying that Andrew Norris didn't exist. Well, I don't know how Tegan came about if he didn't exist. I didn't make her by myself."

Throughout the Sydney trial, it emerged Lane had two terminations as a teenager and kept three later pregnancies and births secret from her friends, family and even her long-term lover.

She adopted out her first and third babies, while she retained custody of a fourth child, whom she had with her ex-husband.

Lane said she felt like she was being punished for adopting her children out.

"You think you're doing the right thing and it's hard to understand why I'm still being raked over the coals for it," she said.

"How does the Crown know what a woman thinks or a woman feels when she's in that situation?"

Lane, who is in prison awaiting sentencing on April 15, said she speaks to her mum and fiance every day, reads, writes and does yoga.

"I keep faith," she said, before dissolving into tears. "[But] I miss everybody. I just want to go home.

"It makes me angry because they've pulled my life apart for 10 years and it's come to this," she said.

"There wasn't even anything there to have a bloody charge."

Criminal lawyer Chris Murphy said the case was the most disturbing he had ever come across.

The case had been "irreparably damaged" by the prosecution implying Lane may have buried Tegan somewhere, he said.

"A jury only makes a best guess," he told Channel Seven.

"They guessed that she killed it, because there is no evidence whatsoever that she killed that baby or that the baby died."

But John Borovnik, the child protection officer whose suspicions on the whereabouts of Tegan led to Lane's conviction, described her as a "cold-blooded killer".

"It takes a lot I believe for somebody to be so organised, be so concealing, be so deceiving, be so conniving and not let anyone else in the world know that she's pregnant," he said.

Lane said she would continue to fight to clear her name.

"I'm not going to be made to say that I did something I didn't do, regardless of how bizarre or odd it is," she said.

"It's not odd because it happened."

AAP

Sentenced today.

Keli Lane sentenced to 18 years' jail for murder of Tegan

Keli Lane sentenced to 18 years' jail for murder of Tegan
April 15, 2011 - 12:00PM



Keli Lane has been sentenced to 18 years in prison at the NSW Supreme Court for the murder of her baby daughter Tegan.

Her non-parole period is 13 years and five months and she will be eligible for release on parole on May 12, 2023.

Extensive searches have uncovered no trace of Tegan since Lane left Auburn Hospital with the girl on September 14, 1996, two days after the birth.



Lane attended a wedding in Manly a few hours later.

After a four-month trial, a jury rejected Lane's claim that she had handed Tegan over to the girl's father, a man named Andrew Morris or Norris, with whom she had a brief affair.

Tegan was the second of three children born to Lane after she kept the pregnancies secret from everyone closest to her. The two other children were adopted out.

She had been a water polo player with Olympic ambitions and prosecutors contended that, in the 1990s, raising children did not feature in her plans.

The judge delivered his sentence to Lane, who has dyed her hair jet black, in front of video cameras. The footage will be released shortly.

smh.com.au

What is it with Australians killing their own babies? They're like common ground rodents with what appears to be an unquenchable thirst for infanticide.

Lane dumped baby in bushland: taxi driver

A taxi driver has come forward claiming that Sydney woman Keli Lane dumped her baby Tegan in bushland, wrapped up next to a tree with a bottle.
The man got in touch with Lane's criminal lawyer Chris Murphy after her sentencing last week for murdering her newborn daughter.
Mr Murphy said the taxi driver told him he had collected the former water polo champion from Auburn Hospital in Sydney and stopped at her request on River Road on the way to Manly.
"The taxi driver said he stopped the vehicle, she got out of the vehicle and left the baby in an area of houses and bushland," Mr Murphy told Macquarie Radio today.
"She came back without the baby. She said she'd given the baby to a babysitter."
After the taxi driver dropped Lane off in Manly, Mr Murphy said he noticed she left a baby bag with nappies in the back of the car.
"He called out to her that she'd left the stuff behind, she said 'I don't need it and left'.
"He said his suspicions were aroused."
The cab driver told the lawyer he then decided to take the clothes to the babysitter.
"He went back to the spot where she had left the vehicle. He said that he - in bush near where she got out of the car - he found the baby wrapped next to a tree and there was a baby bottle there," Mr Murphy said.
"He said there was a woman at the scene that he was talking to."
The driver told the woman he was going to contact police but she said she would look after the baby and he handed her over.
Mr Murphy said he was inclined to believe the driver was telling the truth as he told Mr Murphy that he wasn't interested in making money from the story and he just wanted to do the right thing.
The lawyer said the man also claimed to have gone to the court last Friday, where he spoke to an Inspector Grace who told him not to talk to the media. He then spoke to the defence.
"Now I can't tell you if that's true or not but he is going to talk to police this week," Mr Murphy said.
"If he tells a story to police that are lies he'll be charged with create public mischief and we've all been part of a horrible injustice."
Lane was last week jailed for at least 13 years and five months for murdering Tegan more than 14 years ago.
AAP

^ fascinating - well he took his bloody time to come forward and tell someone.
Difficult to prove, and he could be a nutter - but if he is credible then her murder conviction will be out, much lesser charge re abandonment.
Still raises the issue of where the child is though.
All we need now is a dingo.

Yes Genghis it gets more bizarre by the minute. Maybe the taxi driver is just some attention seeker? The simplest explanation is, more often than not, true.

Combined with Chris Murphy's reputation of skating a fine line along professional ethics as a solicitor.

Originally Posted by genghis61

I don't understand the sympathy aspect; if she is not insane/psychiatric problems then this has been an horrific cold-blooded murder, planned and carried out by this woman. I hope this 'sympathy' does not mean a light sentence.

The judge stated initially that the jury should not equate a liar with a killer.
Subsequently he has said that he didn't think the jury made the right decision. He has always been disturbed by how this case was presented. He felt that Keli Lane's lawyer was out of his depth and there were times that he should have objected to the prosecution's line of questioning and asked for a retrial. He has subsequently quit the bench and become a vocal advocate for Keli