Keli Lane, who was convicted of killing her newborn baby daughter, was allegedly sexually assaulted every day for years by the notorious former prison guard Wayne Astill.
Lane’s alleged serial assaults by Astill were revealed by the Greens MP Sue Higginson who told the New South Wales parliament that Lane was a witness in a government inquiry into his abuse.
“These assaults were taking place daily over years, and there were officers who knew what was going on and did nothing,” Higginson said in the NSW parliament, with Lane’s husband present in the chamber.
Lane’s allegations, read to parliament by Higginson, said that: “[Astill] would hot slice me, run his hands between my legs.
“He would tell me where he wanted to have sex with me, either in the reception office or in a storehouse near there, where we wouldn’t be disturbed.”
In 2023, Astill was jailed for a maximum of 23 years for assaulting female prisoners at Dillwynia correctional centre, north-west of Sydney. A former police officer, Astill worked as a prison officer and then chief correctional officer at Dillwynia before his arrest in 2019.
He was found guilty of 27 charges, and the state government launched an inquiry. The inquiry found Astill should “never have been employed” in state prisons and said “corruption or incompetence” led to his hiring in 1999. Lane was a witness in that inquiry, Higginson said.
Higginson told the parliament that Lane had “unwittingly” reported the abuse to a prison officer who was Astill’s de facto partner.
“The state failed Keli in unimaginable ways,” Higginson said.
“Corrections officers called her a dog, a whore, a slut, they commented on her body during strip-searches and rampaged her room constantly as a form of punishment, she endured rumours from other inmates that she was giving senior officers head jobs and that they were bribing other inmates to assault her.
“When she reported this, she was told, ‘You’re not special’.
“I heard this in Keli’s words when she said to me, ‘when police came to me in the jail and asked what I could tell them about Astill I initially thought it was a setup, but then they said: ‘Keli, we know there are many women, we need your help’.”
Lane’s revelations come after Guardian Australia revealed another female prisoner, who was allegedly raped by Astill multiple times, would be paid an undisclosed sum by the NSW government in an ongoing class action.
Court documents revealed that the woman, known as GP1, alleged she was raped when the justice department already knew Astill “was abusing his position toward female inmates”.
Lane was found guilty in 2010 of murdering her newborn daughter, Tegan, in September 1996. She has always maintained her innocence.
Higginson, who has compared Lane’s treatment with Kathleen Folbigg’s, read out the allegations against Astill as part of a motion to have Lane’s parole reconsidered. It was backed by three crossbenchers but voted down by the government and opposition.
Lane was eligible for parole last year after serving 14 years. But the NSW State Parole Authority last year denied her first bid for release in a test of controversial “no body, no parole” laws, which were introduced by the Coalition in 2022.
Lane insists she gave Tegan to the infant’s father soon after giving birth at Sydney’s Auburn hospital. The body of the two-day-old baby has never been found.
Labor MP Emily Suvaal, in response to Higginson’s revelations, said: “The crimes committed by Wayne Astill are utterly horrific. The government is responding to the Astill inquiry and has accepted all of those recommendations.”
• Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html
