Keli Lane’s new legal move to lodge a petition for mercy after NSW Parole Board secret hearing

Convicted baby killer Keli Lane is making another legal push for freedom after a secret hearing was held by the NSW parole board.

A secret hearing has been held by the NSW parole board over its refusal to consider convicted baby killer Keli Lane for conditional release.

The former elite water polo player has argued in a submission to the State Parole Authority that its initial denial to grant her an opportunity for early release was based on a “manifest injustice”.

Lane has also resubmitted a petition for mercy with the NSW attorney-general in the wake of the 2023 pardon given to Kathleen Folbigg, who spent 20 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of killing her four children.

The board knocked back Lane’s initial bid for parole in March last year based on the “no body, no parole” law introduced in 2022.

“The decision to refuse or revoke parole was made on the basis of false, misleading or irrelevant information,” Lane now argues.

Lane, 49, has argued a report by a NSW police officer to the board last year failed to acknowledge inadequacies in the original investigation.

Keli Lane at court when she was accused with murdering her baby daughter Tegan in 1996.

Keli Lane outside the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney.

She further argues it did not acknowledge her attempts to assist police to find her baby, Tegan, and that investigators failed to retrieve phone records between her and the newborn’s father, a man she told them was Andrew Morris, then Andrew Norris.

“The offender is unable to provide any further information in addition to which she has already provided,” her submission states.

But in a response sent via the Governor of Bolwara House Transitional Centre, where Lane is imprisoned, the board informed Lane this week that her submission had been dismissed during a “private meeting” held on January 31.

Keli Lane in her 20s. Picture: Supplied

“The State Parole Authority determines that circumstances of Manifest Injustice are not made out,’’ it stated.

In its conclusion, the board stated Lane’s argument was “irrelevant” to the body.

Lane’s 18-year head sentence expires in December, 2028.

In a statement released last year the board pointed to Lane’s lack of cooperation with police to find the body of her two-day old baby, who went missing in September, 1996, as a key factor in denying her parole eligibility.

“The authority is not satisfied that the offender has cooperated satisfactorily in police investigations, or other actions, to identify the location of Tegan,’’ it said in a March, 2024 statement.

A ward at Auburn Hospital where Keli Lane gave birth to daughter Teagan in 1996, presented in evidence at the Supreme Court in Sydney.

It can also be revealed that Lane has filed a petition for mercy with the NSW attorney general, Michael Daley, arguing her conviction was unsafe and the police investigation was deficient.

Lane lodged her petition last year in the wake of Kathleen Folbigg being pardoned after scientific evidence shed doubt over her convictions for killing her four infant children.

Folbigg was released after spending 20 years in jail and her convictions were overturned just months later.

The search for Tegan began after a tip-off from a NSW child case worker to police in 1999.

But extensive investigations failed to find any trace of the child.

Lane told police she gave her child to the father, with whom she said she had been involved in a brief relationship.

Lane’s first recorded interview with police was in 2001, nine years before she was convicted in 2010 of murder.

Keli Lane being interviewed by police. Picture: Supplied

She became eligible for release on May 12 last year after serving a minimum 13 years of her sentence.

NSW Police officer Det Senior Constable Tamer Kilani stated in a submission to the board that Lane gave several versions of events about the circumstances of her child’s disappearance.

“The offender provided several versions to police detailing what she stated to have allegedly occurred to her baby,” Kilani stated.

“These versions, that included handing her baby to a fictitious biological father to raise in her absence, were investigated and proven to be false. These lies were lead in evidence during the Supreme Court murder trial which ultimately satisfied a jury to return a guilty verdict.”

Sen Constable Kilani submitted Lane’s “lies” were self-serving.

“To date the offender has never admitted to murdering and disposing (sic) her child, therefore quashing any possibility of police to be in a position to make any attempts to locate the deceased person’s remains.”

RMIT University professor Michele Ruyters, who is in contact with Lane, said the high-profile prisoner has never changed her story.

“She still wants to find her baby and she still wants to prove her innocence,’’ Prof Ruyters said.

“I don’t understand how she can be refused parole on the basis of a police report which gives the false impression of the integrity of the investigation.’’

Originally published as Keli Lane’s new legal move to lodge a petition for mercy after NSW Parole Board secret hearing