Polo star Mum faces court over child’s murder
Posted by Lisa Davies, Chief Court Reporter on August 9th, 2010 | Category: Abusive Women mother murdered child Murder
A WOMEN'S water polo champion accused of murdering her baby daughter was so desperate to represent Australia in the pool she didn't want to be saddled with the responsibility of having a child, a court has heard.
- Polo star faces court over child's murder
- Allegedly didn't want responsibility of kids
- Baby Tegan died when she was two days old
Keli Lane has pleaded not guilty in the NSW Supreme Court to killing Tegan Lane when she was only two days old, after being discharged from Auburn Hospital in Sydney's west on September 14, 1996.
The court heard Lane fell pregnant five times in seven years, keeping all of them secret from her family and friends.
Senior Crown Prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC has this afternoon begun his opening address to the jury in the Supreme Court, saying the evidence would not simply focus on the birth of Tegan.
"Over the course of seven years from 1992 to 1999, the accused became pregnant no less than five times - in fact, she became pregnant four times in five years," Mr Tedeschi said.
The first two pregnancies were terminated, the court heard.
Mr Tedeschi said the Crown would allege it was Ms Lane's "over-riding ambition" to represent Australia at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 in her chosen sport of water polo that led to her "not wanting to be saddled with the responsibility of having a child".
A jury of 14 - two more than usual - have been empanelled due to the length of the trial, estimated to extend almost three months before Justice Anthony Whealey.
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