‘I was sexually assaulted by Wayne Astill’: convicted child killer Keli Lane breaks silence
Convicted child killer Keli Lane has revealed she was sexually assaulted on multiple occasions by notorious rapist and former prison boss Wayne Astill at the Dillwynia Correctional Centre for Women.
On the video link a woman shakes as she explains her humiliation to a court she cannot see.
The perpetrator of her abuse is watching, and she’s grateful he’s not within eyesight of the cameras focused on the judge and the barrister questioning her.
“He would ‘hot slice me’”, she says, before explaining: “or run his hand between my legs and touch my vagina. I could feel that he had an erection.”
For the first time, Keli Lane is publicly revealing her ordeal at the hands of notorious rapist and former prison boss Wayne Astill when he was in charge of the Dillwynia Correctional Centre for Women in northwest Sydney.
“I would be called into his office over the loudspeaker: ‘Lane to reception!’ If I didn’t go, one of the staff members would say ‘Lane, you’ve been called to reception.’
“So it was like walking to your own molester: ‘How am I going to get out of this?’”
Lane’s allegations were made in a statement read in the NSW parliament by Greens MP Sue Higginson, sourced from Astill’s trial and a meeting Higginson had with Lane – a former water polo champion and convicted child killer.
Parliament also heard explosive claims a document Lane had prepared detailing her claims against Astill was copied from her computer and given to senior corrective service officers who were assisting officers under scrutiny.
Higginson said she was revealing details of the torment suffered by Lane and her fellow prisoners because it was of such public importance it needed to be ventilated in parliament under privilege, and was doing so with Lane’s full permission. Lane has also consented to be identified by The Australian.
Lane is serving a maximum of 18 years after her controversial conviction for the murder of her newborn child Tegan, two days after giving birth.
Tegan’s body has never been found; Lane has always maintained she handed her to the baby’s biological father, a man she named as Andrew Norris or Andrew Morris, who police were unable to trace and whose identity remains a mystery.
Lane has maintained her innocence for the 14 years she has been incarcerated, and says she has been co-operating with police in their efforts to recover her baby. She says she hired a private investigator outside the police investigation to locate her child.
The 49-year-old was eligible for parole in May last year, but it was refused on the basis she could not provide a body.
Lane’s evidence against Astill was critical to putting the rapist behind bars, after years in which he had ruthlessly exploited his position at Dillwynia Correctional Centre, the largest female jail in NSW, housing more than 1700 women.
Convicted in 2022, Astill is now serving a maximum of 23 years in jail for his crimes, which included 27 counts of aggravated sexual and indecent assault on female prisoners spread over 10 years, including the sexual assault of one inmate who was pregnant.
“Keli Lane was responsible for helping significantly in putting this evil man behind bars for his rape and abuse of vulnerable women in his care,” Higginson told parliament.
But it took years for anybody to care what Astill was doing.
Higginson told parliament Lane’s caseworker, the woman to whom she had unwittingly reported Astill’s abuse, was prison officer Tanya Hockey. Unbeknown to Lane, Hockey had become Astill’s de facto partner, while his wife was confined to a nursing home. But her complaints about Astill’s behaviour went nowhere.
Lane has told Higginson of her fear at speaking out at Astill’s trial, a time when she was leaving the court to return to a jail system where officers were still working who had been under his command.
“When police came to me in the jail and asked what I could tell them about Astill, I initially thought it was a set up. But then they said ‘Keli, we know, there are so many women. We need your help’.”
After Astill’s trial and jailing it became clear that Dillwynia needed a serious clean-out.
The NSW government created the Special Commission of Inquiry into Astill and the horrifying treatment of women in his care.
‘Vipers pit’
The inquiry into Astill’s crimes reported that a number of damning allegations were made against the former jail boss and the officers who covered for him, or ignored his despicable acts. Those officers and other staff who did try to complain about the vile abuses of Astill and his posse found themselves the victims of bullying.
The inquiry found that Astill should never have been employed by Corrective Services NSW, but got the job as the result of either “corruption or incompetence”. Commissioner Peter McClellan, KC said that before being hired by Corrective Services Astill had been the subject of multiple complaints of “serious criminal and other misconduct” while he was working as a NSW police officer.
Mr McLellan lashed the culture of Dillwynia, saying it “failed the inmates’ need for a stable, secure, and safe environment”, noted it was described as a “viper’s pit” and “toxic” and that complaints were often dismissed by the governor.
“Instead of investigating the rumours, the management of the jail sought to suppress them at multiple levels. In many cases, the available evidence was more than rumour.”
Greens MP Cate Faehrmann also alleged in parliament that material that Lane had prepared detailing allegations against Astill was copied from a computer she was using at Milpro, the milk distribution centre, where she was an inmate worker.
“The documents were copied and taken from where she was preparing them,” Faehrmann told the Legislative Council. “She was using her memory and her own diaries and diary entries and dates. It has now been proven that those documents were taken from the computer and passed on to senior Corrective Services officers who were assisting prison officers.
“We do know that they were definitely passed on to senior Corrective Services officers who were assisting officers under scrutiny.”
In an interview with Higginson, Lane was still obviously distressed having to repeat her experiences.
She explained how Astill would shove her up against a filing cabinet, pressing his beer belly against her and groping her breasts and her genital area, forcing kisses on her.
“I had nightmares about that, about the pressure of his fat body and about his false teeth possibly falling out on my face. That may sound weird but that’s how disgusting it was.
“He would tell me where he wanted to have sex with me, either in the reception office, or in a storehouse near there where we wouldn’t be disturbed.”
Pleas ignored
Lane said the assaults occurred in the protection unit, known as the High Needs Unit, where officers could see that she had been inside with Astill for between 15 and 20 minutes, alone with the door closed.
“That is when the offending would happen. He would grab my hand and put it on top of his penis. He pressed against me and he would try and touch my breasts and he would also try and touch between my legs.
“He mentioned he liked boats and that he would like to see me on his boat, preferably topless.”
Throughout these assaults, Lane claims there were officers outside who knew what was going on and did nothing.
Lane believed some officers thought she and Astill were in a consensual sexual relationship, with rumours rife around the jail – and spoken about publicly by officers – that she was “giving head-jobs” to the prison boss.
Lane told Higginson the rumours made her life unbearable. She was frequently depressed to the point of suicide as her complaints were ignored and unreported.
Lane is being held under the “no body, no parole” law, but cannot appeal the refusal of the parole board to grant her parole on the grounds that she cannot provide the body of her daughter.
The no body, no parole law was brought by the NSW government as an effort to keep wife killer and former Sydney teacher Chris Dawson behind bars.
Patrick Cogan, Lane’s longtime partner, sat in the public gallery of the Legislative Council listening as her ordeal at the hands of the sadistic prison boss was revealed for the first time.
Cogan is a childhood friend from the Northern Beaches who had known Lane as a fellow PE Teacher in the Catholic education system and reconnected with her after she was charged.
He has remained her long-term partner throughout her incarceration and been a father figure to her other daughter, who’s now 24.
“It’s a renewed feeling of helplessness to be honest,” said Cogan.
“I came hoping the honourable members of this house would see how much Keli had suffered and the courage it had taken for her to speak out against the monster Astill.
“I also hoped it would be clear from what Ms Higginson was saying that the no body, no parole law does not fit Keli’s case at all. It is a law designed to bring comfort to victims. The only victims in this situation are Keli, myself and her much-loved daughter who has barely seen her mother outside of jail walls.
“Please, just let her come home,” he pleaded.
‘End the torture’
Justice Anthony Whealy KC, who handed down Lane’s maximum 18-year sentence in 2010, has previously said he thinks she should be exempt from the no body, no parole law because it was not intended for someone in her position.
Lane told Higginson: “I think of seeing Tegan again every single day. I believe she is alive.”
Higginson says for her part she isn’t apportioning guilt or otherwise; she is simply asking for an end to what she calls the torture of Keli Lane.
“Her own daughter is now 24, Keli has brought her up and educated her despite the bars separating them. She returned to Australia from the UK last year to live with her mum.
“This is not Keli Lane’s law and to inflict it upon her is wrong,” says Higginson.
“People can talk around the water cooler as much as they like about whether she’s guilty or innocent but regardless, she’s now served her time.
“NSW Corrective Services and the Parole Authority need to weigh up the convicted rapists and serial murderers they are releasing into the community while they keep Keli Lane locked up.”
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