Keli Lane seeks use of prison diaries in lawsuit against NSW

Keli Lane, who is serving a lengthy jail sentence for the murder of her newborn daughter, is seeking to use her prison diaries as part of her lawsuit against the state over alleged abuse in custody.

Lane was convicted in 2010 of murdering her two-day-old daughter, Tegan, in Sydney in 1996 after giving birth at Auburn Hospital. She was sentenced to a maximum of 18 years in prison.

Lane filed proceedings against the state in 2024, but an updated statement of claim was filed in November last year.

Her solicitor, Michael Deegan from Carroll & O’Dea Lawyers, told the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney on Thursday that the case was “a claim against the state for misfeasance in public office, not a personal injury matter”.

He said there would be “claims against a number of prison officers as part of the action”.

Deegan said that “some of [Lane’s] diaries were retained by the DPP” after a previous criminal proceeding, and he was seeking access to them to assist in drafting an evidentiary statement.

“We’re still trying to get those,” he said.

Asked why it would take until the end of August to prepare the evidentiary statement, Deegan said: “Our client is incarcerated. This is a very complex matter.”

In the first case to test NSW’s “no body, no parole” laws, which took effect in 2022, Lane was denied parole in 2024 after serving her minimum sentence of 13 years and 5 months.

Tegan’s body has never been found. Lane maintains she gave the newborn to her daughter’s father, who has never come forward. She is set to remain behind bars until her 18-year sentence expires in December 2028.

The then Supreme Court justice Anthony Whealy said in his 2011 sentencing decision: “The Crown case was that, between the time that Tegan was examined at Auburn Hospital by the discharging doctor on 14th September 1996, and at the time of the offender’s arrival at her parents’ home at Fairlight at about 3 o’clock during the afternoon, the child was murdered by her mother, who also disposed of her body.

“The defence case was that, by arrangement, Keli gave the child to its natural father. Consistently with the jury’s verdict, I must reject this explanation.”

Whealy signed an open letter in 2024 calling for the “no body, no parole” laws to be scrapped due to their consequences for wrongfully convicted prisoners.

He noted that “it was always possible under the existing law for the parole body to take into account the fact that somebody was refusing to cooperate indicating where a victim’s body might be found”.

Upper house Greens MP Sue Higginson said in State Parliament in March last year that Lane “is not in prison; she is in hell”. She said Lane had been subjected to “inhumane and degrading treatment” and abuse.

The parties to Lane’s civil suit will attend mediation later this year. If the matter does not settle, they will return to court for a status review on November 20.

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