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Home / World

Exposed: Australian baby killer Keli Lane's tapes from prison revealed

By Rohan Smith
news.com.au·
25 Sep, 2018 10:19 AM3 mins to read

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Exposed: The case of Keli Lane delivers bombshell after bombshell. Photo / ABC

Exposed: The case of Keli Lane delivers bombshell after bombshell. Photo / ABC

An explosive documentary, Exposed: The case of Keli Lane, airs on the ABC detailing for the first time the contents of exclusive prison interviews with the mother of Tegan, presumed baby killer Keli Lane.

Lane, 43, is serving an 18-year sentence for the murder of her two-day-old daughter in 1996. She was convicted despite Tegan's body never being found.

In the documentary, investigative journalists Caro Meldrum-Hanna and Elise Worthington chat with the convicted killer in a series of recorded interviews. The tapes had not been revealed until today.

Keli Lane and her first boyfriend Aaron Tyack as teenagers. Photo / ABC
Keli Lane and her first boyfriend Aaron Tyack as teenagers. Photo / ABC

In one recording, Lane discusses why she lied about three secret unwanted pregnancies between 1996 and 1999.

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"The lies were around the shame or the embarrassment or the humiliation of the life I was leading not different to any other young person that makes silly choices or is covering up a part of their life," Lane says.

She explains how she concealed the three pregnancies, telling the pair it wasn't particularly hard.

"Do you know what," Lane says. "I don't even remember really putting that much effort into it.

"Of course, avoiding people was probably my biggest attempts. I was very good at isolating myself, so wherever everyone was going, I might only go for a little while, or I was going between training, work, home ... I was really good at dodging everyone."

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In another conversation, Lane tells Meldrum-Hanna about the last moment she had with her daughter. Lane claims she gave Tegan to her father — a man she called Andrew Norris but later said was named Andrew Morris.

"She's so beautiful and just, she's asleep and she was tucked in this ... capsule. I was very upset, I was crying, and Andrew was with ... his mother," she says.

"They'd obviously been sitting in the chairs waiting and they stood up as we approached. And just as they feeling of, 'Is this the right thing to do?'

Keli Lane protests her innocence during 2003 police interview. Photo / ABC
Keli Lane protests her innocence during 2003 police interview. Photo / ABC

"I looked at them and, not to judge, but I didn't know them."

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Police have not been able to track down Andrew Norris and prosecutors at her trial successfully argued that instead of handing her baby over, she instead left hospital with her, murdered her and disposed of her body.

No topics were out of bounds, according to Meldrum-Hanna, who last week told news.com.au the three-part series had driven people "mad".

She said it is "more believable" that Lane killed her baby than gave it away, but the question has lingered.

"In the end, it became more believable that Keli Lane killed her baby," Meldrum-Hanna said.

Between the ages of 17 and 24, Lane had two abortions and gave birth to three babies, all without her family's knowlege. Photo / ABC
Between the ages of 17 and 24, Lane had two abortions and gave birth to three babies, all without her family's knowlege. Photo / ABC

Lane contacted Meldrum-Hanna from Silverwater Women's Correctional Centre. In her first phone call with the award-winning journalist, Lane begged for her help to clear her name.

"The biggest hope for me is that someone comes forward with my daughter," she told Meldrum-Hanna.

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

Lane, who played high-level water polo during one of her pregnancies, appealed her original conviction at the High Court.

Her lawyers tried to argue for a lesser conviction of manslaughter but were unsuccessful.

Her earliest release date is 2024.

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