Keli Lane has her appeal against murder conviction dismissed

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/13/keli-lane-appeal-against-conviction-dismissed

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Keli Lane, the former elite water polo player jailed for killing her newborn baby, has had her appeal against her conviction dismissed.

Chief Justice Tim Bathurst, Justice Carolyn Simpson and Justice Christine Adamson handed down their decision at the NSW court of criminal appeal in Sydney on Friday.

The 38-year-old was jailed in 2011 for at least 13 years and five months for the murder of two-day-old Tegan.

She received a maximum sentence of 18 years.

It has been three years since Lane's guilty verdict.

It was the crown case that Lane killed Tegan after leaving Auburn hospital with the newborn in September 1996.

She then went to her parents' home before attending a wedding later that afternoon.

Lane has always maintained she gave Tegan to the infant's father, with whom she had a brief affair and who she said was called Andrew Norris or Morris.

She appealed her conviction on eight grounds, including that an alternative count of manslaughter should have been open to the jury.

Lane had two terminations as a teenager and had kept three pregnancies and births secret from family and friends, adopting out two children.

The crown contended Lane murdered Tegan because a child would have interfered with her sporting, sex and social life.

Lane's earliest release date will be in May 2024.

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