THE New South Wales Coroner is "comfortably satisfied" that missing
Sydney girl Tegan Lane is dead.
But Coroner John Abernethy said today there was not enough evidence to charge a
known person with her homicide.
He delivered his findings today after an lengthy inquest into Tegan's suspected
death. The girl has not been seen since she was discharged into the care of her
mother, Keli Lane, on September 14, 1996, two days after her birth at Auburn
Hospital.
Mr Abernethy told Westmead Coroner's Court he was "disturbed at the
possibility that Tegan may have met with foul play", but added it was
possible the child was still alive.
However, he made the formal finding that Tegan died about 1996.
"As to the place, manner and cause of her death, the evidence adduced does
not enable me to say," Mr Abernethy said.
He recommended that the case be referred to the NSW Police Homicide Squad for
review or further investigation.
Ms Lane, now 30, kept Tegan's birth and those of two other children secret from
her family and friends.
The two other children were legally adopted out but when Tegan's birth was
discovered by authorities in 1999 she initially denied the baby's existence
then offered inconsistent versions of events.
In her latest account, she gave the newborn to Tegan's natural father, a man
named Andrew Norris, with whom she had had an affair.
Mr Norris, his de facto girlfriend Mel, and his mother collected the newborn
from Auburn Hospital, Ms Lane told police.
But nationwide searches have failed to find any trace of him or the child.
Mr Abernethy today said without the untruths and half truths Ms Lane had told
police, adoption agencies and social workers, her version of what happened to
Tegan was "possible, though unlikely".
"With those untruths ... I am completely unable to accept the final
version given by Keli Lane," he said.
Mr Abernethy said he found it "inherently unlikely that a man with whom
(Ms Lane) was having an affair, who already had a partner, who initially at
least was incredibly angry on learning she was pregnant, nevertheless was happy
to take the child".
"This is all the more unlikely because that man's cuckolded partner also
agreed."
Earlier this week, Ms Lane exercised her legal right to silence when called to
give evidence at the inquest.
While Mr Abernethy acknowledged her right not to incriminate herself, he said
"the position is that without Keli Lane's evidence this court is unable to
... make a final meaningful assessment as to whether this inherently unlikely
version of events may be true".
Detectives
investigating disappearance of Tegan Lane dig under Gladesville house
2008-08-04 11:31:51
A large-scale operation has begun at a Sydney house as part of inquiries into
the disappearance and suspected death of baby Tegan Lane.
Tegan disappeared soon after her mother, Keli, was discharged from Auburn
Hospital about 2pm on 14 September 1996.
A coronial inquest into the circumstances of baby Tegan's disappearance
concluded in early 2006. Former NSW Coroner John Abernethy ruled that Tegan was
deceased and referred the case to the NSW Police Force's Homicide Squad for
review and further investigation.
Strike Force Kullara was established by the Homicide Squad in October 2006
after the review of the case was completed.
The case is now one of more than 190 that are the subject of further investigation
by the Unsolved Homicide Team.
Homicide Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Geoff Beresford, said
today's operation began with the execution of a crime scene warrant shortly
before 10am.
"The Gladesville property was the home of one of Keli Lane's former
boyfriends and she is known to have attended this location briefly on the day
she was discharged from hospital.
"As a result of further inquiries over almost two years, we have uncovered
information which suggests Tegan's remains may be at this location,"
Detective Superintendent Beresford said.
The home is now occupied by a family who have been relocated by the NSW Police
Force for the duration of the operation.
"Further investigation has been carried out by the detectives into the
disappearance and suspected death of Tegan Lane.
"Our inquiries have led us to the house in Venus Street, Gladesville,
where an operation has begun today to excavate under the home for possible
remains.
"This work is expected to take up to a week and will also include a search
of the entire property," Detective Superintendent Beresford said.
At least 20 people are involved in the operation, led by the Unsolved Homicide
Team, with the assistance of officers from the Public Order and Riot Squad (PORS),
Police Rescue, and Forensic Services Group (FSG).
Detective Superintendent Beresford said, "As part of our ongoing
inquiries, we are appealing for help to identify people who might have seen or
had contact with Keli Lane while she was in Auburn Hospital between 12 and 14
September 1996."
Detectives are also keen to hear from any members of the public who might have
seen Keli Lane in the Auburn Hospital carpark on 14 September 1996.
Strike Force Kullara detectives can be contacted via Crime Stoppers on 1800 333
000. Information will be treated in the strictest confidence and can be
provided anonymously.
Is the body
of baby Tegan Lane under a house?
Article from:
By Kara Lawrence
August 05, 2008
12:00am
IN Keli Lane's
own words, she visited her former boyfriend's
house in Gladesville 12 years ago after handing
her baby over to its natural father - a man
police have never been able to prove existed.
Now police believe those words may return
to haunt her, with a dig under that same
weatherboard house to find missing baby Tegan
Lane's remains.
For the first time, a thorough excavation
at the property has been launched in an effort
to ascertain once and for all whether Tegan's
remains are buried there.
The case of
missing baby
Tegan - who
would be 11 if
she was still
alive today -
has fascinated
Sydney, with a
painstaking
national police
search unable to
find any record
of the child.
In 2006,
former State
Coroner John
Abernethy found
Tegan was dead
but stopped
short of finding
she had met with
foul play.
Forensic
anthropologist
Dr Denise Donlon,
accompanied by
police and
cadaver dogs,
yesterday began
sifting through
the soil
underneath the
Venus St home ,
which neighbours
say underwent
extensive
renovations from
2004.
When
two-day-old
Tegan was
discharged from
Auburn Hospital
on September 14,
1996, Ms Lane's
then-boyfriend
and footballer
Duncan Gillies
owned and lived
in the Venus St
home, which has
since changed
ownership.
Cadaver
dogs were used
in a 2005
search, without
success.
But a
two-year review
of the case led
to police
gaining new
information
which pointed to
the location,
Detective
Superintendent
Geoff Beresford
said.
"It is
known that Keli
Lane frequented
this house prior
to the birth of
Tegan and we
believe she may
have visited
there shortly
after leaving
Auburn
Hospital," he
said.
Ms Lane
told police
during a
previous
interview she
stopped by Mr
Gillies' home
that day.
She
claimed to have
handed the child
over to her
natural father,
an Andrew
Norris, who has
never been
found, before
catching a cab
to Gladesville.
Ms Lane
also gave birth
to two other
children in
secret in the
1990s and
legally adopted
them out. She
kept a fourth
child she bore
with her
husband.
Ms Lane
could not be
found at her
parent's
Fairlight home
yesterday, with
her former
policeman father
Robert ordering
media from the
property.
Police
operation at
Gladesville
concludes -
Unsolved
Homicide Team
2008-08-08
17:26:16
A five day
police operation
at a Gladesville
house, conducted
as part of
ongoing
inquiries into
the suspected
death of baby
Tegan Lane, was
finalised at 5pm
today.
A number of
items have been
located during
the operation
which will be
subjected to
further forensic
analysis to
determine their
relevance to the
ongoing
investigation.
Strike Force
Kullara
detectives are
continuing to
investigate the
disappearance
and suspected
death of baby
Tegan Lane and
are renewing
their appeal for
information.
Since the
operation began
on Monday,
detectives have
received a
number of calls
from members of
public with new
information.
This information
has provided
detectives with
additional lines
of inquiry,
which are being
investigated.
Meanwhile
detectives are
renewing their
appeal for
information from
the public about
the
disappearance of
baby Tegan.
Detectives are
also urging
anyone who might
have seen Keli
Lane in the
Auburn Hospital
carpark on 14
September 1996
to contact
police.
Strike Force
Kullara
detectives can
be contacted via
Crime Stoppers
on 1800 333 000.
Information will
be treated in
the strictest
confidence and
can be provided
anonymously.
Bones found in hunt for Tegan
Dylan Welch - SMH August 9, 2008
POLICE found small bones during their week-long search for the
remains of newborn Tegan Lane, but are not sure if they are human.
Officers, a forensic archaeologist and cadaver dogs have been
undertaking a forensic excavation of a cottage in Gladesville to
find the remains of the baby who went missing 12 years ago - two
days after her mother, Keli Lane, gave birth. Police said they found
several items during the operation, which will be further analysed
to "determine their relevance".
The Herald understands the items include bone
fragments, although police will have to wait for tests to determine
whether they were those of a small baby or an animal. On Monday
police cordoned off the house on Venus Street, where Ms Lane's
one-time boyfriend was living when Tegan disappeared. A forensic
archaeologist, Dr Denise Donlon, and officers sifted through soil
under the house.
Ms Lane, a former representative water polo player and teacher
at Ravenswood School for Girls in Gordon, gave birth to Tegan on
August 12, 1996.
Three years later it was discovered that, although the birth
had been recorded, there was no sign of the infant.
At first Ms Lane denied Tegan's existence but later recanted.
Police were unable to find the father, and now doubt his existence.
It was eventually revealed that Ms Lane had given birth to three
children between 1995 and 1999, all of whom were kept secret from
her family and her boyfriend. The other two children were given up
for adoption.
At a subsequent coronial inquiry a state coroner John
Abernethy found Ms Lane's "litany of lies" had made it impossible to
discover the truth. It was ruled that Tegan died in 1996.
Keli Lane loses High Court application to appeal against conviction
for murdering baby Tegan
Former water polo champion Keli Lane has lost her application to the
High Court to appeal against her conviction for murdering her baby.
Lane is serving a minimum sentence of 13 years and five months after
being found guilty of killing her two-day-old daughter Tegan in
1996.
Her maximum sentence is 18 years.
She has always maintained she gave the child to a man with whom she
had a brief and secret affair. Tegan's body has never been found.
Lane applied for leave to appeal in the High Court after the Supreme
Court upheld her conviction in late 2013.
Her barrister Winston Terracini SC today told a two-judge panel in
the High Court an alternative count of manslaughter should have been
open to the jury, as there was no evidence about how Tegan died.
"There was a viable case of manslaughter," Mr Terracini said.
"The jury should have been at least told ... there was an
alternative verdict.
"There's no evidentiary basis on how the deceased was killed."
Lane's second ground for appeal was that crown prosecutor Mark
Tedeschi reversed an onus of proof in asking rhetorical questions
during his wrapping up of the case to the jury.
But the High Court judges noted the strength of the prosecution case
was in part due to the fact no arrangement was made for the baby to
be placed in care after her birth.
They pointed out Lane arrived at her family's home soon after
leaving Auburn Hospital, and a short time an act "dangerous or
contrary to the law" may have occurred.
The judges said the defence case relied on a "murder or nothing"
tactic throughout the trial.
Tegan's body has never been found and Lane has always maintained she
gave the baby to the biological father, a man she called Andrew
Norris or Morris, with whom she had an affair.
But prosecutors maintained Lane killed Tegan after leaving Auburn
Hospital, in western Sydney, two days after giving birth.
Lane had two terminations as a teenager and kept three pregnancies
and births secret from family and friends, giving up two children
for adoption, the court heard.
The crown's case was that Lane hid five pregnancies and did not want
the responsibility of a child because of her ambition to compete in
the 2000 Olympics.
Lane's mother Sandra was in court today but made no comment
outside.
Lane's earliest release date will be in May 2024.
The moment Keli Lane was found guilty of killing baby Tegan
FOR months she had sat quietly in the dock listening to claims that
she killed her baby daughter Tegan 14 years earlier. As a guilty
verdict was delivered, Keli Lane shattered her silence with a
piercing scream of “No!” and collapsed to the floor.
September 25, 2018 Daily Telegraph
THE notorious case of Keli Lane has captured the public’s
imagination for years.
The aspiring sports star managed to hide the birth of three babies
from all those around her — and while two of them were put up for
adoption, the second child, a little girl called Tegan, hasn’t been
seen since Lane left hospital with her two days after her birth.
Lane maintained she handed Tegan over to the child’s father, a man
called Andrew Norris or Morris, so that he could raise her.
But in 2010 she was found guilty of her daughter’s murder, later
sentenced to 18 years in prison, and her attempts since to appeal
the conviction have failed.
“The biggest hope for me is that someone comes forward with my
daughter,” she says.
“She’d be an adult now. So she obviously has had a whole life
perhaps not knowing she is my child.”
In 2010, Lisa Davies covered the Keli Lane case for The
Daily Telegraph and was in court for the dramatic moment the
guilty verdict was delivered.
This is an edited version of her account of that day:
FOR months she
had sat quietly in the dock of Sydney’s King St Supreme Court,
silently listening to prosecution claims that she killed her baby
daughter Tegan 14 years earlier.
But on December 13, 2010, Keli Lane shattered her silence with a
piercing scream of “No!” and collapsed to the floor as a jury found
her guilty of murder.
Struggling to her feet after the jury members filed into the
courtroom at 2.20pm to deliver their verdict, a nervous Lane had
barely reached a vertical position before the jury foreman softly
announced “guilty”.
As she uttered her distraught shout, her legs gave way and she
crumpled sideways. A loud bang was heard — the sound of her head
striking the wooden dock — as her mother also let out a scream from
the public gallery.
Lane’s legal team sat stunned, while those representing the Crown
also appeared shocked.
As the 35-year-old lay convulsing on the floor and howling, sheriffs
and lawyers rushed to her aid and medics were called to the court.
The court was briefly cleared as Lane was treated, before the jury
returned to be formally discharged by Justice Anthony Whealy.
Lane’s eyes stared emptily at the men and women who, moments before,
had sealed her fate.
As Justice Whealy thanked them for their service, many of the jury
members cried and none of them could bring themselves to look at
Lane.
It was a dramatic and unexpected end to the four-and-a-half-month
trial of torment for the former water polo player, who had
continually denied charges that she murdered her two-day-old
daughter in 1996.
The day of the verdict began like any other for Lane since the trial
began in August — with a solemn walk along Elizabeth St from her
lawyer’s office.
The journey took less than 10 minutes but there was nothing easy
about it, thanks to the big elephant that walked beside her.
That charge. The trial. Those lies. The secrets she had so
desperately tried to keep. Lane heard the whispers, and she saw the
looks, as she walked. “Baby killer”, the strangers in the street
were clearly thinking. But others stopped her in support, as well.
“I can’t believe what they’re doing to you,” one man said early in
the trial.
“Hang in there.”
At 10.55am on December 13, 2010, Lane began that walk for the final
time. But she was completely unprepared for what lay ahead.
There had been a phone call minutes earlier, the jury had sent a
note.
Once inside the court precinct, Lane tried to contain her fear. But
the tears came anyway.
She mouthed to her mother and close friend “Where’s Patrick?”,
referring to her then boyfriend, Patrick Cogan, who sent a dozen
roses to court one day in a show of support.
Her ex-husband, who could not be identified, sneaked into the back
of the court, along with her brother Morgan.
Her father, former policeman Bob Lane, had been waiting at their
Manly home, too frail to endure the strain.
Eventually, after much confusion, there were two notes — one from
the foreman, one from another juror.
The court was told there was a unanimous decision on some charges,
but not another — the one that mattered, the murder charge.
For the three charges of making a false statement under oath about
the adoption of her first and third born, the jury was unanimous —
guilty. Lane sobbed as the foreman convicted her, disbelieving.
She hunched toward the mahogany dock for support, her strong leg
muscles suddenly unreliable.
The foreman told the judge the six women and five other men were
unable to reach a verdict on the main charge — that she murdered
two-day-old Tegan on September 14, 1996, after leaving Auburn
hospital.
At 12.35pm, Justice Whealy told them they could reach a majority
verdict — 11-1 — if they so desired.
They again retired but at 2.20pm they filed back into the courtroom.
After the drama had subsided, Justice Whealy was asked to consider
bail. It was a hopeless request, with the law stating Lane must
receive at least 10 years jail on a charge of murder.
“I feel great sympathy for the accused, particularly the great
weight these verdicts will have on her and her situation,” Justice
Whealy said.
But he said “even though it’s difficult for me to come to this
conclusion [it would be] a very unfair result” to grant Lane bail
because “it would hold out false hope” to her.
Lane was then escorted handcuffed from the court complex by
corrective services officers and driven to jail.
This court report was originally
published in The Daily Telegraph on December 14 2010, and is edited
here for clarity on dates
The 13 questions baby killer Keli Lane should answer
The 13 questions that would nail baby killer Keli Lane’s guilt and
forever silence her media attempts to protest her innocence.
The former NSW Director of Public Prosecutions has 13 questions he
believes would nail down convicted baby killer Keli Lane.
In his new book Frank
& Fearless, Nicholas Cowdery has criticised Lane’s
repeated attempts to exonerate herself via the media.
The retired leading NSW prosecutor also points out how Lane
narrowly faced a massive minimum sentence of 25 years in prison
for killing her newborn baby.
Lane, 44, a former elite water polo player, Olympic hopeful and
private girls’ school coach, was convicted in 2010 of the 1996
murder of her two-day old daughter, Tegan.
She was sentenced to a maximum 18 years prison and will be
eligible after 13 years for parole in 2024.
Lane’s appeals to the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal and the High
Court have both failed.
Lane has featured on Channel 7’s Sunday,
twice on Channel 9’s 60
Minutes and this year from jail spoke to ABC-TV to air
her claims of innocence on Exposed.
Lane’s claim was that Tegan’s father, named Andrew Norris or
Andrew Morris, took the child from her after she left hospital
on her way to a wedding.
Cowdery criticised “slipshod and misleading reporting” that he
said risked “undermining public confidence in the … criminal
justice system”.
“Keli Lane is a highly unusual individual,” he writes in Frank
& Fearless.
“Since she has consistently refused to testify in her own case in
any court, there has been no opportunity to put challenging
questions to her.
“Television journalists have declined to ask the forensically
pertinent ones.
“Why have journalists not asked such questions when they had the
opportunity?”
The 13 questions Cowdery proposes go right to the core of Lane’s
stories over the years.
Lane secretly became pregnant five times before finally keeping a
sixth child.
Two pregnancies were terminated, two babies were adopted out and
then there was Tegan.
After a child protection worker, John Borovnik, alerted police, they
began investigating Lane. A coronial inquest was held and a
fruitless search for a body or a living Tegan Lee Lane began.
These are abbreviated versions of some of the 13 questions Cowdery
lists in his
book:
1. When you were first told by police they were looking for Tegan …
why didn’t you immediately seek out Andrew Morris or Norris?
2. Why did you give eight different versions of what happened to
Tegan?
3. You told the Exposed ABC
program that you handed over Tegan to “Andrew: in the foyer of
Auburn Hospital” … this was the first time you had given that
version … why have you now advanced another version. Which version
is correct?
4. 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?
5. Why did you lie to (a specific detective) that your friend Lisa
had known Andrew Morris/Norris and had known about the birth of
Tegan … and also tell him you didn’t know how to contact Lisa?
6. In 2004, your then husband found 13 “A Norris” entries in the NSW
phone book and offered to ring them. Why didn’t you insist he do so?
Police later determined that the Balmain, Sydney flat in which Lane
claimed she conceived Tegan with Andrew Morris/Norris, had never had
such a tenant.
Last year, The
Daily Telegraph exclusively revealed police interviewed a
real Andrew Morris in Lane’s life with whom she’d had a brief tryst
at a 1994 surf sporting event.
The one-off sexual encounter took place 18 months before Tegan was
even conceived.
Cowdery also lists reasons why Lane rightly was found guilty, her
motives, and the trial judge Anthony Whealy’s difficulty in
sentencing Lane.
Cowdery reports the exchange between Justice Whealy and the trial’s
Crown prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, in which Tedeschi argues Lane’s
premeditated guilt in disposing of Tegan rather than just abandoning
the child to die.
“You could put a baby in a dumpster and leave it there,” Justice
Whealy ventured.
Mr Tedeschi replied: “When Keli left the hospital she clearly had an
intention that the baby was not going to survive.
“Keli left the hospital with the intention of killing a baby and did
kill a baby.”
As has been reported, two hours after doing so Lane was attending
the wedding of friends with her then boyfriend, Duncan Gillies.
Video footage has since surfaced of Lane, dressed in white, at St
Patrick’s College, Manly with Mr Gillies.
Mr Gillies was unaware of the pregnancy and no mention of Tegan was
made by Lane.
Despite Mr Tedeschi’s compelling Crown case, it was he who saved
Lane from being incarcerated until 2036, when she would be 61 years
old, Cowdery reveals.
At the time of Lane’s trial, “the new standard non-parole period for
those convicted of child murder … was 25 years”.
Cowdery says Tedeschi saved Lane by arguing the new penalty could
not be applied retrospectively, but that some would “call it a close
shave”.
Cowdery was NSW’s DPP for more than 16 years, presiding over
headline-grabbing trials that he recounts in his new book.