The parents of convicted child killer Keli Lane on why they're standing by their daughter

The parents of Keli Lane, who was convicted of the murder of her newborn baby, believe their daughter hid multiple pregnancies to protect the family’s reputation.

Breaking their silence in an exclusive interview with 60 Minutes, Sandra and Robert Lane said they believed their daughter had given Tegan away to the baby’s father in 1996, two days after the birth.

Watch the full interview with Sandra and Robert Lane on 9Now.

The whereabouts of Tegan remain unknown.

“I think she was trying to protect us, trying to protect our standing in the community, her standing in the community, and the father’s,” her father Robert Lane said.

“We wish we weren’t in this position, but it’s happened, we can’t change it, so all we can do is support her.”

The couple, who live in Manly on Sydney’s northern beaches, say the evidence was insufficient for a murder conviction.

They believe their daughter’s story that Tegan was raised by her biological father.

 “It sounds improbable, but there’s a lot of improbable things that happen in life,” Sandra Lane said.

“I don’t think she’d hurt anybody, to be truthful – especially a child.”

Mrs Lane expressed doubt at the prosecution’s case that her daughter had dumped the body of the newborn.

“It was broad daylight, for a start. Where is she going to dump a child in broad daylight, in such a short time frame?” she said.

A former aspiring water polo player, Lane, who has given birth to four children, hid three of the pregnancies from her friends and family.

Her parents said she had worn baggy clothes and tracksuits and that nobody suspected the truth.

“We didn’t know, and if you don’t know, you don’t know,” Mr Lane said.

“All I can say is that nobody knew”.

The Lanes spoke to 60 Minutes in the hope of changing the public perception of their daughter as a killer, in light of The Bridge of Hope Innocence Initiative at RMIT University in Victoria, which is reviewing Lane’s conviction.

The initiative also believes Lane was wrongfully imprisoned, and that she should have gone to trial under a manslaughter charge.

Lane is serving a non-parole period of 18 years and will be eligible for parole in 2023.