'Golden girl' turned killer to keep secret

With Ms Lane on trial charged with murdering her second baby, Tegan, the Crown prosecutor, Mark Tedeschi, QC, began his closing address before the jury.

Mr Tedeschi said Ms Lane had a successful, even enviable life. She enjoyed a good relationship with her parents, with whom she lived on the northern beaches; she was an elite water polo player who had represented Australia; she had a good education, a large circle of friends and "no shortage of boyfriends".

But Mr Tedeschi said there was unchallenged evidence that, over seven years in the 1990s, while supposedly being on the pill, Ms Lane fell pregnant five times.

All the pregnancies were unwanted, Mr Tedeschi said.

The first two were terminated but "three times she didn't realise she was pregnant until it was too late".

Ms Lane put her first and third children up for adoption but is accused of murdering Tegan two days after her birth in September 1996.

Ms Lane, 35, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Tegan, maintaining she gave the newborn to the baby's natural father. Neither Tegan nor the man Ms Lane named as the father, an Andrew Norris or Morris, has been located.

Mr Tedeschi said Ms Lane never had any intention of taking the babies home, and sought solutions that would permanently relieve her of the responsibility of caring for them.

She succeeded in hiding the pregnancies and births from everyone in her life by allegedly telling "numerous lies".

"She was not prepared to run any risk of denting this image she had of herself, that she believed other people had of her, of being this successful golden girl," Mr Tedeschi told the court.

"She was completely and utterly determined to prevent these hidden parts of her life, involving these three children, becoming known to her family, her friends, her colleagues, her sporting mates."

The trial continues.