Another twist in 'baby Tegan' murder case

Keli Lane pictured outside the New South Wales supreme court, Sydney. Photo / AAP

There's been another twist in a 14-year-old Australian murder case that shocked Sydney's social scene.

A Sydney taxi driver has come forward claiming that convicted murderer Keli Lane was in his cab on the night in question, and Lane dumped her baby Tegan in bushland.

The man got in touch with Lane's criminal lawyer Chris Murphy after her sentencing last week for murdering her newborn daughter.

Mr Murphy said the taxi driver told him he had collected the former water polo champion from Auburn Hospital in Sydney in September 1996 and stopped at her request on River Road on the way to Manly.

"The taxi driver said he stopped the vehicle, she got out of the vehicle and left the baby in an area of houses and bushland," Mr Murphy told Macquarie Radio this morning.

"She came back without the baby. She said she'd given the baby to a babysitter."

After the taxi driver dropped Lane off in Manly, Mr Murphy said he noticed she left a baby bag with nappies in the back of the car.

"He called out to her that she'd left the stuff behind, she said 'I don't need it and left'.

"He said his suspicions were aroused."

The cab driver told the lawyer he then decided to take the clothes to the babysitter.

"He went back to the spot where she had left the vehicle. He said that he - in bush near where she got out of the car - he found the baby wrapped next to a tree and there was a baby bottle there," Mr Murphy said.

"He said there was a woman at the scene that he was talking to."

The driver told the woman he was going to contact police but she said she would look after the baby and he handed her over.

Mr Murphy said he was inclined to believe the driver was telling the truth as he told Mr Murphy that he wasn't interested in making money from the story and he just wanted to do the right thing.

The lawyer said the man also claimed to have gone to the court last Friday, where he spoke to an Inspector Grace who told him not to talk to the media. He then spoke to the defence.

"Now I can't tell you if that's true or not but he is going to talk to police this week," Mr Murphy said.

"If he tells a story to police that are lies he'll be charged with [creating] public mischief and we've all been part of a horrible injustice."

Lane was last week jailed for at least 13 years and five months for murdering Tegan more than 14 years ago.

Prosecutors painted a picture of her as a socialite who wanted to live the high life, and who thought the baby would be too much of a hindrance.

- AAP