Keli Lane has been denied bail in a bid for release ahead of her upcoming appeal in the NSW Supreme Court over her conviction for murdering her newborn baby.
The former elite water polo player was sentenced to at least 13 years and five months in jail in April 2011 over the disappearance and murder of two-day-old baby Tegan in 1996.
Lane’s 2010 conviction which found her guilty of murder caused great controversy as Tegan’s body was never found and no cause of death determined.
Lane reportedly has two abortions as a teenager and subsequently kept three pregnancies and births secret. She put her first and third children up for adoption, but was convicted of murdering Tegan.
She claims she handed her two-day-old daughter to the baby’s father with whom she had a brief affair, but in 2011 a court decided that Lane had murdered her daughter “in a situation of desperation”.
Lane is now planning to appeal the conviction. In a bid for release ahead of the appeal her legal team led by high profile defence lawyer Winston Terracini argued her trial was unfairly prejudiced from the start.
In today’s bail application Mr Terracini argued the jury that convicted Lane should have been instructed that manslaughter and infanticide were alternate charges to consider, and also cited “conduct of the prosecution” as grounds for appeal arguing there was a problem with the prosecution’s method of questioning during the trial.
Justice Hoeben said while he understood the points raised by Lane’s defence, they were an issue for the appeal court, and denied bail saying he would hand down his reasons tomorrow.
One of Lane’s barristers James Trevallion said outside the court that the defence remains positive leading up to her appeal.
“I’ve spoken to Keli, obviously she’s very disappointed, but we’re still positive in respect of the appeal,” he said.
