Australian water polo champion accused of murdering her baby

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/no-time-for-five-babies-keli-lane-accused-20100809-11u64.html



Keli Lane had a clear idea of what she wanted to achieve in the run-up to the Sydney Olympics.

An elite athlete, she enjoyed a busy social life and was determined to represent Australia when women's water polo was contested as an Olympic event for the first time in 2000.

Raising a child had no part in that plan, the Supreme Court heard yesterday.

So when Ms Lane became pregnant five times between 1992 and 1999, she allegedly resolved to avoid the responsibility. Her first two pregnancies were terminated. Two babies were secretly carried to term and adopted out, in 1995 and 1999. Her fourth pregnancy was also hidden from her family, friends and boyfriend. The little girl, born at Auburn Hospital on September 12, 1996, was named Tegan. Ms Lane is now accused of her murder.

As her trial began yesterday, the Crown Prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, said Ms Lane was a young woman with an active social life and sex life - and an ''overriding ambition to represent Australia''.

''A child was not part of this picture,'' he said. She did not want ''to be saddled with the responsibility of having a child'' and had sought ''a permanent solution to all these five pregnancies''.

On September 14, 1996, four or five hours after leaving Auburn Hospital, Ms Lane attended a wedding with her then boyfriend. The Crown alleges Tegan was murdered in the hours between her discharge and the wedding.

Mr Tedeschi said it might seem strange that somebody would be able to conceal three pregnancies from those around them but ''each of these three pregnancies that went to full term was completely hidden by the accused''.

Ms Lane allegedly disguised her figure with sloppy joes and jumpers tied around her waist.

The only people who suspected she was pregnant were water polo teammates. Curious about why she covered herself with a towel until slipping into the pool, they put on their goggles and checked her out underwater in her swimming costume, Mr Tedeschi said. But they said nothing and neither did Ms Lane.

She even played in a grand final for her Balmain club just hours before she went into labour for the first time, in 1995.

The jury heard she disappeared from post-match drinks at the Bridge Hotel and took herself to nearby Balmain Hospital with contractions.

Ms Lane, 35, has pleaded not guilty to Tegan's murder and to three counts of perjury relating to affidavits signed by her.

The court heard there was no evidence she suffered from post-natal depression or any mental disturbance. She allegedly resumed her usual sporting, social and sexual activities after giving birth and nobody noticed anything amiss.

At the wedding she attended the day she allegedly murdered Tegan, she seemed her normal self. Ms Lane was afraid her family would abandon her if they learnt of her pregnancies, Mr Tedeschi said. Her fears were not realised when her family did eventually find out.

He said the other ''bizarre'' aspect of the case was why someone from a solid family, who was getting a tertiary education, would fall pregnant five times.

Although Ms Lane was taking the contraceptive pill, she drank heavily and would keep up with the boys. When there was ''a lot of drinking … a lot of chucking'', the pill may not have been absorbed, Mr Tedeschi said. ''Maybe she wasn't taking it properly; who knows?''

A few weeks after Tegan was born, Ms Lane began coaching water polo at Ravenswood School for Girls.

The fact she signed up for the job before the birth ''shows only too vividly that she had no intention of ever taking Tegan home'', Mr Tedeschi said.

Herald Sun



UPDATE 4.45pm: AN Australian water polo champion may have killed and disposed of her newborn baby in 1996 at Sydney's Homebush Olympic site, a court has heard.

Prosecutors said Keli Lane, 35, most likely murdered baby Tegan within three hours of leaving the Auburn Hospital between 11am and midday on September 14, 1996.

Mark Tedeschi QC told the jury it was not known how or where Ms Lane killed the baby or how she disposed of the body but the 2000 Olympic site - in Sydney's west - would have provided her with a nearby opportunity to find somewhere private.

He told the New South Wales Supreme Court that Ms Lane had kept the 1996 pregnancy hidden from her boyfriend, family and friends.

She had probably used a fire escape to get out of the hospital after giving birth and arrived at her parents' house at 3pm with "no sign of any baby," Mr Tedeschi said.

"The Crown case is that in the interim three hours plus, the accused murdered Tegan and disposed of her body," he said.

"She had plenty of time to compose herself and drive from wherever she was to her parents' place at Fairlight (in Sydney's northwest)."

Ms Lane, who has pleaded not guilty to murdering the child, attended a wedding on the afternoon she left the hospital.

"She had to be at that wedding to avoid the obvious question of family and friends - where is Keli?" Mr Tedeschi said.

It is alleged she had the pregnancy induced so she could go to the event.

Ms Lane is accused of hiding five pregnancies partly because of her ambition to compete in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

Mr Tedeschi said Lane did not want to be "saddled with the responsibility" of having a child. Two other pregnancies, he said, had already been terminated - one in 1992 and one in 1994.

Lane gave birth to two other children - one in 1995 and another in 1999 - but they are no longer in her care.But it was Lane's fourth pregnancy and birth - baby Tegan - that yesterday led her before a jury charged with murder.

Women's water polo was included for the first time at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, but Ms Lane was not part of Australia's gold-medal winning team.

Mr Tedeschi told the jury they would hear Lane had "a very active social and sex life".

"A child was just not part of that picture," he told the court. "The child would put a serious dent in these activities."

Ms Lane, he said, kept her pregnancies from her family and friends - including the men with whom she shared her bed.

"The accused was extremely fearful that if her family found out about these pregnancies that they would reject her and abandon her," Mr Tedeschi said.

The prosecution alleges that after each birth, Lane immediately resumed her active social life.

Her trial on the charge of murder, and three counts of perjury, is expected to last up to three months.

She hid her pregnancies so she could take part in the Olympic Games! OMG!
AND she didn't want to 'get saddled with the responsibility of having a child'. I just cannot understand these women! Like Antoinette say's on another thread, there's so many women who would love to just have one baby.