‘Frustrated’: Keli Lane sues corrective services for $2m

One of Australia’s highest profile inmates has launched a civil case over claims she was bullied in jail for making complaints about prison officers.

EXCLUSIVE

One of the state’s highest profile inmates Keli Lane has launched a $2 million civil case against corrective services over claims she was bullied in jail for making complaints about prison officers.

The former elite water polo player, 49, was sentenced to 18 years behind bars in 2010 after she was found guilty of murdering her newborn daughter Tegan.

Lane, who maintains her innocence, had her parole application thrown out last year under the NSW ‘no body, no parole’ laws.

With three years left of her sentence, Lane has told the NSW Supreme Court she has become the subject of intense harassment behind bars.

NSW Corrections Minister Anoulack Chanthivong and Corrections Commissioner Leon Taylor are named as defendants.

Keli Lane arrives at the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney in 2009.

On Tuesday she appeared in court via video link from Bolwara Transitional Centre and said she intends to make two separate claims – one for personal damages and another seeking a judicial review.

According to her pleading, lodged in court in November and obtained by this masthead, she claims she was targeted in jail due to the nature of her conviction, the media interest in her case, and for her “continual fight for my innocence”.

Lane said the practice of targeting an inmate was called “therapy” and involved trashing their cell and possessions, hampering visits, mail and phone calls, and various other forms of harassment to “teach inmates a lesson”.

She was self-represented in court, but told the registrar the matter had become too large for her to manage alone and requested an adjournment to give her time to brief a lawyer.

Keli Lane is taken away in handcuffs and led to an awaiting prison truck after being convicted by a jury of killing her newborn baby Tegan.

One of the major complexities of managing her own case, she said, was that all her correspondence with the outside world was screened NSW Corrections – the government body she is suing.

“Being in custody, my documents are being read by the same people I’m up against,” she told the court.

“I’m representing myself, and the difficulty I’m finding is that it’s a live issue – these issues are still occurring and I’ve been frustrated for two years trying to mediate this situation.”

In the pleading, she also referred to her brief stint working at a dairy facility last year. The job was a step toward her eventual release, but she then lost the ability to work in the community after being caught with a mobile phone.

Lane said NSW Corrections approved her having and using a phone for “work and personal use”. She also claimed that she was falsely accused of travelling 5km away from her workplace.

As a result, she was reclassified as a higher security prisoner and stripped of the right to work, earn money, go on unescorted excursions, and take weekend leave.

Lane’s ability to launch civil action falls under the Felons Act. She is a convicted criminal who has committed a serious indictable offence, which means judge must approve her case before it can be heard.

The matter was adjourned to April 2.

Originally published as ‘Frustrated’: Keli Lane sues corrective services for $2m