On Friday, 24th June 2005, the father of Sydney woman Keli Lane told the New South Wales Cororon's Court he was shocked to learn that his daughter had given birth to three children without his knowledge. An inquest was being held into the disappearance of one of those children Tegan. Robert Lane gave evidence about a grand daughter he did not know he had until January 2004. He told the court he believed that his daughter had given baby Tegan to her father, a man she named as Andrew Norris. He agreed that the situation was surreal and bizarre and said he and his wife were shocked to learn that Keli had given birth to three children they didn't know about.
Fast forward five years to yesterday, 8th August 2010 at the Supreme Court. Senior Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC began his opening address. A jury of 14 - two more than normal - were chosen due to the expected length of the trial. Keli Lane is accused of murdering her baby daughter Tegan when she was two days old after being discharged from hospital in 1996. She has pleaded not guilty.
This is going to be another trial by media, just like the Lindy Chamberlain case with blow by blow accounts of what happened in court every day. It's just come to light that the women on the jury of Lindy Chamberlain were convinced of her guilt but the men had to be talked around. I get the feeling those same women want to find Keli Lane guilty.
Prosecutor Tedesci said "Over the course of seven years, from 1992 to 1999 the accused became pregnant no less than five times - in fact she became pregnant four times in five years". The first two pregnancies were terminated, the third and fifth were adopted and the fourth was baby Tegan, the court heard. The Crown would allege it was Ms Lane's "over-riding ambition" to represent Australia at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 in her chosen sport of water polo that led to her "not wanting to be saddled with the responsibility of having a child".
Keli Lane comes from a popular sporting family who live in seaside suburb of Manly. Keli's father was a successful rugby union coach and Keli was an elite water polo player, representing her state and country. Living at home with her parents, incredibly, they had no idea she had ever been pregnant - having a fuller figure, she somehow disguised it very well. She would wrap a towel around herself, sit on the edge of the pool and take the towel off as she slipped into the water.
Keli chose a hospital in Auburn to have baby Tegan, as far away from Manly as she could possibly get. It would be highly unlikely she would encounter any friends or family in this part of Sydney.
So the mystery remains - she got pregnant five times in seven years. She had two terminations, two were adopted but her last child Tegan, can't be accounted for. Now Prosecutor Tedeschi has to prove that she killed her and without a body, it won't be easy.
