Baby killer Keli Lane’s life is going swimmingly – as she’s freed on weekend release and her partner gets his elite teaching job back after his school was ordered to rehire him
Convicted baby killer Keli Lane has been spotted lapping up the winter sunshine with her schoolteacher lover at Balmoral Beach on Sydney’s Lower North Shore.
Lane was spotted frolicking in the waves in her swimsuit and electronic ankle monitor with longtime boyfriend Patrick Cogan, who has just won his job back.
Prison insiders told the Daily Mail that Lane is ‘excited’ and ‘in high spirits’ to be granted weekend prison release again after it was previously rescinded.
Lane, 51, won back her weekend release privileges after they were withdrawn over allegations that she misused a mobile phone while on release to contact Cogan.
Cogan is also celebrating after winning his long-running fight to be able to return to his job as a PE teacher at elite Sydney boys school, St Pius X College in Chatswood.
He had been dismissed over his relationship with Lane, but that decision has twice been overturned by the Fair Work Commission after an initial ruling in April and another this month.
The private Catholic school – where Cogan has taught for almost three decades – has also been ordered to back pay Cogan his lost wages.
Lane celebrated by taking a dip in her pink one-piece, alongside Cogan in his red budgie smugglers, as the couple lapped up Sunday’s glorious Sydney weather.
An exuberant Keli Lane splashed into the surf at Balmoral Beach on Sydney’s Lower North Shore, celebrating her return to weekend prison release after months of being locked away
Wearing a pink one-piece and a satellite tracking anklet, Lane and her partner Cogan embraced briefly on the sand as they enjoyed each other’s company in the Sunday sunshine
The couple seemed to revel in the perfect winter weather at Balmoral, where baby killer Lane was spending precious moments on jail release for the weekend
Grinning alongside a happy-looking Cogan, she splashed exuberantly and dove into the surf, immersing her head beneath the water before resurfacing to enjoy the day.
At one point, the couple embraced briefly on the sand and then looked at one another lovingly before laughing in unison.
Lane had her weekends cancelled and was moved back into maximum security at Silverwater Women’s Correctional Centre, away from the liberties of transitional jail.
But the Daily Mail can confirm she is now living in the less restrictive Bolwara Transition Centre at Emu Plains prison complex, where inmates are allowed to go to nearby shopping centres while wearing a tracking device.
Lane, who faces two more years until the expiry of her 18-year sentence for killing baby daughter Tegan in 1996, sat with Cogan to dry off after the swim.
The couple then wrapped up in tops, shorts and a towel to wander along the Balmoral waterfront.
Cogan has stood by Lane throughout her sentence and has been living at her Northern Beaches home while she remains behind bars.
This came as he faced his own trials, after he was dismissed following 27 years of service at Sydney’s St Pius X College and accused of using his work email for communications relating to Lane.
Lane looked happy as she frolicked with her longtime boyfriend — as the Daily Mail can confirm Lane is ‘excited’ and ‘in high spirits’ to be granted weekend prison release
After a swim, the couple then wrapped up in tops, shorts and a towel to wander along the Balmoral Promenade
Lane was found guilty in 2010 of murdering her newborn daughter in 1996 and sentenced the following year to 18 years in prison, with a non-parole period of 12 years and five months
In April, the Mail reported Lane was caught using a jail work phone to message Cogan.
Lane had a showdown with NSW Corrective Services in May to win back her privileges, including the ability to earn money in jail jobs such as cleaning, and to re-secure weekend release.
Corrective Services NSW confirmed she won the transfer back to Bolwara, and then by dint of good behaviour, secured her weekend release to spend with her partner.
Lane was jailed for 18 years in 2011 for the murder of her child Tegan after delivering the baby in secret on 12 September 1996 at Sydney’s Auburn Hospital.
Two days after the birth, while still an undischarged patient, Lane walked out of the ward with Tegan at about midday and arrived alone at her parents’ Northern Beaches home at Manly, around 3pm.
She later claimed she had given the child to the biological father, a man named Andrew Norris or Andrew Morris.
Police could find no such person and began investigating Lane, initially for the murder of her daughter. She has always maintained her innocence.
She would have been eligible for parole in 2024, but under NSW’s no body, no parole laws, that was denied. Her full sentence expires in December 2028.
Lane was jailed for 18 years in 2011 for the murder of her child Tegan after delivering the baby in secret on 12 September 1996 at Sydney’s Auburn Hospital
Lane, 51, would have been eligible for parole in 2024, but under NSW’s no body, no parole laws, that was denied. Her full sentence expires in December 2028
Cogan, who was a teacher for 27 years at an elite boys’ school, has been with Lane off and on since her 2010 conviction for killing her baby daughter.
The pair sat on the steps along Balmoral Promenade, chatting away and enjoying the winter sunshine as part of Lane’s renewed weekend release from prison.
Cogan – who has been Lane’s partner on and off since her 2010 trial – had taken St Pius X College, in Chatswood on Sydney’s North Shore, to the Fair Work Commission.
The Commission ruled in Cogan’s favour on April 2, finding that he had been unfairly dismissed and ordering the school to give him his job back and repay lost wages.
he school challenged that decision, but lost again this month when the Fair Work Commission ruled Cogan’s ‘devotion to his partner and explanation for his breach of the email direction were not relevant’ and again ordered him to be rehired.
