Keli Lane: Convicted baby killer speaks from jail to say she's innocent and her daughter is alive

Updated

Convicted baby killer Keli Lane has broken her 15-year silence, telling the ABC she believes her daughter Tegan is still alive and may now be old enough to come forward.

Key points In 2010 Keli Lane was found guilty of murdering her baby Tegan

Baby Tegan was last seen when she was discharged from hospital

Keli Lane has always maintained her innocence

Baby Tegan's body has never been found

The 43-year-old has spoken publicly for the first time, making a series of phone calls to the ABC's new investigative documentary series Exposed from inside Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre, where she is serving an 18-year sentence for murdering her newborn baby two days after giving birth in September 1996.

Despite police investigations and a coronial inquiry, Tegan's body was never found. This September marks 22 years since Tegan Lane disappeared.

In dozens of six-minute conversations — the maximum call time allowed by the jail — Lane said she believes she can clear her name.

"The biggest hope for me is that someone comes forward with my daughter," Lane said.

"She'd be an adult now. So she obviously has had a whole life perhaps not knowing she is my child.

"I don't want to interrupt her life, I don't necessarily even need to meet her, but obviously for my own family, for myself, I want to show that I did not harm her. And I certainly did not kill her."

The recorded phone conversations with Lane will form part of the upcoming Exposed series by award-winning ABC investigative journalists Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Elise Worthington.

Do you know more? Contact exposed@abc.net.au

Lane admits she was a serial liar

Lane, who was 21 at the time of Tegan's birth, attended hospital alone to give birth.

A police officer involved in the coronial investigation said Lane told a series of lies to hospital staff about why she was without any support at the time she gave birth.

"It was lie here, deception there; lie here, trying to cover her tracks continuously," Inspector Rebbecca Becroft told Exposed.

"The amount of lies she told, half-truths she told — it was massive, absolutely massive."

Lane told Exposed she concealed her pregnancies to protect her parents from shame and humiliation, adding that she was "young and frightened".

From a young age she had been trained to "hide what was hurting her" and she had learnt how to be "different things to different people", she said.

"It was a carelessness and a lack of self-protection.

"And then drinking a lot, drinking and not using the pill correctly. Or not asking my partner to use protection. And not having control, I think is the biggest thing — not having control of the situations I was in."

The mystery of Andrew Morris, or Norris

Lane was found guilty of Tegan's murder in 2010 in a high-profile trial which exposed the web of lies Lane spun to conceal multiple pregnancies.

Lane's other unwanted pregnancies ended in abortions and adoptions, but she maintained Tegan was handed to the baby's biological father in an arranged handover at Auburn Hospital days after the birth.

"Although it may seem unusual to everyone else, 21 years ago they're the steps I took and I safely gave her to her father," she said.

"I want to clear my name. I want to show the public that's what happened."

Lane initially told police the father's name was Andrew Morris, a man from Balmain in Sydney's inner west, who she claimed to have had an affair with for several months.

But she later said his name was Andrew Norris, a discrepancy which further aroused police suspicions she was lying about what happened.

Police never found Andrew Morris/Norris, and the identity of Tegan's biological father remains a mystery.

What police did discover was a pattern of deception Lane used to conceal her pregnancies from family and friends.

Key dates in the Keli Lane case

March 21, 1975

Keli Lane is born to parents Robert and Sandra Lane.

November 17, 1992

Keli Lane falls pregnant for the first time, she is 17 years old and in her final year of high school. She tells her boyfriend and together they decide to have a termination.

March, 1994

Keli Lane terminates a second pregnancy.

March, 1995

Keli Lane carries her third pregnancy to full term and gives birth to a healthy baby girl in March. She conceals the pregnancy and birth from family and friends and puts the baby up for adoption.

September 12, 1996

Keli Lane falls pregnant for the fourth time and carries a second child to term. Keli gives birth to her second child, a baby girl who she names Tegan. Tegan is born at Auburn Hospital in Sydney's west.

September 14, 1996

Keli is discharged from the hospital with baby Tegan between 11:00am and 2:00pm.

Baby Tegan is never seen again.

Keli arrives at a friend's wedding at 4:00pm without the baby.

May, 1999

Keli Lane gives birth to her third child, a baby boy. Keli adopts her son out.

Late 1999

The initial adoption agreement for Keli Lane's baby boy lapses, and the case is forwarded to DOCS. Case worker John Borovnik is handling the boy's adoption, and becomes suspicious when Keli Lane denies she gave birth to a child in 1996.

November 4, 1999

DOCS worker John Borovnik reports baby Tegan as missing to the police.

February 14, 2001

Keli Lane is interviewed by police for the first time. She says she gave Tegan to the natural father, and agrees his name is Andrew Morris.

May 9, 2003

Keli Lane is interviewed for the second time by police. She now says that the name of Tegan's father is Andrew Norris, not Andrew Morris.

Police ask her directly whether she has killed the child.

Police: Did you kill the child? Lane: No, I did not. I did not do anything like that.

January 8, 2004

Keli Lane is interviewed for a third time by police. She is told they don't believe her story, and the case will go to an inquest.

August 31, 2004

This is the first day of the inquest into the disappearance of Tegan Lane, with a non-publication order placed on the entire matter. The case is adjourned until October 27, 2004, when the non-publication order is lifted.

February, 2006

After 18 months, the inquest finishes. State Coroner John Abernethy says he is comfortably satisfied Tegan Lane is dead, but says there is insufficient evidence to establish place, manner and cause of death. Instead of referring the matter to the NSW ODPP for possible prosecution, he delivers an open finding and refers the matter back to NSW Police for further investigation.

November, 2009

The NSW ODPP charges Keli Lane with murder and three counts of perjury related to the lies she told during the adoptions of her children.

July, 2010

Keli Lane's trial begins, she does not give evidence.

December 6, 2010

The jury retires in the Keli Lane trial, and deliberates for seven days.

December 13, 2010

Keli Lane is found guilty of murder and three counts of making a false statement by a majority verdict 11-1.

April 15, 2011

Keli Lane is sentenced to 18 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 13 years and 5 months.

July 23, 2011

Keli Lane's appeal is heard in the Court of Criminal Appeal

December 13, 2013

Keli Lane's appeal is rejected

2016

The ABC's Caro Meldrum-Hanna receives a letter in the post from Keli Lane. Keli maintains that Tegan is alive and asks Caro to investigate her conviction.

Topics: murder-and-manslaughter, law-crime-and-justice, crime-prevention, crime, parenting, abortion, pregnancy-and-childbirth, psychology, australia

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