If you were intending to hand over Tegan to the natural father, why did you fill out a Medicare form putting her membership under your name? As has been reported, two hours after doing so Lane was attending the wedding of friends with her then boyfriend, Duncan Gillies. Three people have been charged with child abuse offences after a police sting that had numerous electronic items and digital evidence seized from their homes.
Detectives have charged a third man with murder following investigations into a fatal shooting in Salt Ash this year. A Brisbane court has been told of the steps a woman took to get money she believed she was owed by her escort clients when payments fell through.
In she gave birth to another child who was also adopted out. She concealed all her pregnancies during the '90s, including a further two that were terminated.
Even more bizarre was Lane's behaviour soon after Tegan's birth and death. After keeping the birth a secret from friends and family, just hours after leaving hospital Lane attended a friend's wedding with her then-boyfriend, rugby union player Duncan Gillies, where she danced and socialised.
Lane enjoying herself at her 21st birthday in It was alleged in court that she kept all these pregnancies secret because she was concerned that it would affect her chances of representing Australia in water polo at the Sydney Olympic Games.
Throughout the various trials and investigations Lane has always maintained her innocence, albeit without testifying under oath, but she remains in the Silverwater Correctional Complex, and isn't eligible for parole until May Over the years Lane has changed dramatically in appearance — she has reportedly lost a massive 30kg after becoming a vegetarian and is no longer blonde, after changing back to her natural brunette hair colour.
She has maintained an on-again, off-again relationship with boyfriend Patrick Cogan, who she met while on bail awaiting trial. The Crown produced evidence that, as a motive for murder, Lane was prepared to abandon her children at birth to increase her chances of representing Australia in water polo at the Sydney Olympic Games. There was also evidence she believed children would interfere with her educational plans, her social life, and the regard in which she was held by parents and friends.
It was also alleged that her friends' wedding on 14 September may have been a crucial factor; as Lane sought a permanent solution to a potential problem to hide evidence of the pregnancy and birth from family and friends. At various stages during the trial, clashes over points of evidence occurred between the Crown and the presiding Judge.
The Crown took one matter to the Court of Criminal Appeal. At the heart of the Crown's appeal was that Lane's lies — those concerning Andrew Morris, Andrew Norris, and the story that she gave Tegan to a "Perth couple" — were indicative of Lane's guilt. Justice Whealy had instructed the jury that Lane's lies did not equate to guilt, whereas the Crown claimed otherwise. The Crown won its case in the Appeal Court and, in summing up, Crown Prosecutor Tedeschi suggested to the jury that the three lies were evidence of consciousness of guilt.
Lane's defence rested on the lack of evidence about how or where Tegan might have been killed. The Defence claimed that even if Lane had killed Tegan, the Crown could not prove she had done so deliberately or with the intention to kill. In the absence of evidence, Chapple called on Justice Whealy to direct the jury to find Lane not guilty of murder.
After hearing from the Crown Prosecution about similar cases involving circumstantial evidence namely Kerry Whelan and Dorothy Davis and considering the matter for a day, Justice Whealy rejected the defence application. Chapple announced that Lane would not be giving evidence; and that there would be no defence witnesses at all.
Summing up the cases lasted for over a week; Tedeschi taking two and a half days, Chapple taking four days. In directing the jury, Justice Whealy asked them to consider "not whether the accused is guilty, but whether the Crown has satisfied you beyond reasonable doubt that she is guilty".
In total, the trial lasted four months and, after deliberating for a week, on 13 December the jury found Lane guilty of lying under oath in relation to documents dealing with her adopting out two other babies. The jury was not able to come to a unanimous verdict on the murder charge. Under advice from Justice Whealy, the jury was given the option of returning a majority of 11 to one verdict. A little later on the same day, the jury found Lane guilty of murder of Tegan Lee Lane.
Lane was refused bail. Sentence procedures commenced on 11 March , again in the Supreme Court before Justice Whealy, with the Crown calling for the Court to pay particular regard to general deterrence. It was reported that psychiatrist Michael Diamond, who appeared before the hearing on behalf of the Crown, found no evidence of a psychiatric disorder and that Lane's decisions appeared to be based on "problem solving". On 15 April Lane was sentenced to 18 years jail with a non-parole period of 13 years and five months.
She will be eligible for parole on 12 May Lawyers acting for Lane lodged an appeal against her conviction on 18 April The same day, claims were aired in the media that a taxi driver saw Lane dump the baby in bushland, enroute to Manly.
Murphy claims that the driver believes that Lane left the baby in bushland and returned to the taxi, where they continued on to Manly. Murphy claims that the driver returned to the site where the baby was allegedly left and found a woman there. According to Murphy, the driver claims that the woman stated she would attend to the needs of the baby and the driver then left the scene. Police are investigating the claims made by the driver.
Her non-parole period is 13 years and five months and she will be eligible for release on parole on May 12, Extensive searches have uncovered no trace of Tegan since Lane left Auburn Hospital with the girl on September 14, , two days after the birth, and went to 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 s, raising children did not feature in her plans. Justice Anthony Whealy delivered his sentence to Lane in front of video cameras. Lane, who has dyed her blonde hair jet black, showed no reaction as the sentence was handed down.
Agreeing with the Crown description of Lane as a "golden girl", Justice Whealy said she had murdered Tegan "in a situation of desperation". The judge concluded that Lane was fully rehabilitated and presented no danger to the community. He said the two aggravating features of the murder were the age of the victim and that it had been an abuse of a position of trust.
He noted the tragic fact that, for whatever reason, Lane could not tell her own mother of the secret birth of her three children. Fourteen years after Keli Lane's daughter disappeared, many questions remain unanswered.
This was an extraordinary trial, not just because it involved the strongest bond there is, between mother and child. It was extraordinary because after more than four months, we know almost nothing more about Keli Lane's character, and her daughter's disappearance, than we did at the start. The unusual thing about the case is that there was only ever one piece of physical evidence for the alleged murder.
This was the fact that somewhere between lunch and dinner on September 14, , year-old Keli Lane was parted from her daughter Tegan. After what has been described as the biggest missing person search in Australian history, not one piece of physical evidence has been added to that: no scrap of clothing or DNA or fingerprint, no sighting of Keli or Tegan between the time they left Auburn Hospital and Keli arrived home alone. Of course, it was a circumstantial case, like those involving the deaths of Azaria Chamberlain and Caroline Byrne, and circumstantial cases by their nature are weak on direct evidence.
This is even more so when the alleged victim's body is missing and there is not even a crime scene. Even so, usually there is more than there was here.
Keli Lane's trial opened as a mystery wrapped around that one fact and it closed as one. Advertisement Still, the fact of Tegan's disappearance was so unusual and so terrible it had to be investigated. And once it had been investigated - several times, including a coronial inquest in - the Director of Public Prosecutions decided Keli Lane had to be prosecuted. The facts of her life that have emerged were bizarre and they were many. They revealed a woman incapable of effective contraception, who in the s became pregnant five times when she did not want children.
A woman who was able to hide three pregnancies and births from those close to her, including her parents and a partner with whom she was having a regular sexual relationship and most of her water polo team mates. A woman who gave away at least two newborn children. Some of the details were so amazing they strained credulity, yet none added one jot of physical evidence to our knowledge of what happened on the afternoon of September 14, Nor did Keli Lane's many lies about the children she had in the s.
These were told to hospital and adoption workers at the time, and to police and friends later on, when sharp-eyed DOCS worker John Borovnik realised Tegan had disappeared from the official radar and notified police. But telling lots of lies does not make you a murderer, as Justice Anthony Whealy warned the jury during the trial. The mystery of Tegan's fate was reflected in the mystery of her mother. For more than 60 days Keli Lane turned up in court well-dressed and perfectly groomed, her unlined face composed in an expression of serenity.
There were tears on only a few occasions. More often she displayed a faint smile that reminded this observer, disconcertingly but persistently, of the Mona Lisa. Sometimes she smiled at the judge, the jurors or some of the lawyers or witnesses. Compared with most people who have sat in the dock at King Street Court 3, she was a strong presence. Given the enormity of what she was charged with, and the bizarre and troubling nature of some of the evidence, her serene self-confidence was at times disconcerting.
Although we learnt a great deal about her life in the s, the trial produced surprisingly little insight into her character.
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