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Exclusive: Baby killer Keli Lane has been seen for the first time in years, pictured working at a milk processing plant on the outskirts of western Sydney as she nears the end of her sentence.
The images of Lane come nine months before the former champion water polo player is eligible for parole.
9News can reveal the 48-year-old is living in a halfway house and working full-time producing dairy products for the state's prison population as she readies herself for potential release.
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The one-time Olympic hopeful secretly gave birth to a daughter named Tegan at Auburn Hospital in 1996.
Just hours after being discharged, the mother celebrated at a friend's wedding, the same day she claims to have handed the baby to its father.
Lane has always maintained her daughter was being looked after by a man named Andrew Morris or Norris, who has never come forward or ever been found.
The former golden girl was found guilty of murdering her newborn daughter by a NSW Supreme Court jury in 2010 and sentenced to a maximum of 18 years in jail with a non-parole period of 13 years and five months.
She has always maintained her innocence while being transferred between some of the toughest jails across NSW including Silverwater, Dillwynia and Clarence Correctional Centre on the state's Mid North Coast, where she was housed with another high-profile prisoner – convicted child killer and now pardoned Kathleen Folbigg.
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Dr Xanthe Mallett, a forensic anthropologist and criminologist, believes there was never enough evidence to convict Lane and has queried how the trial was run.
She remains in contact with the prisoner.
"Keli will certainly still want to clear her name, she will maintain her innocence upon release," Mallett said.
"(She) has really been a model prisoner since she has been incarcerated.
"She worked with other inmates on diet and exercise and really improving their lives."
The semi-rural transitional centre where she was pictured this week is likely to be Lane's last stop before possibly rejoining her family on the Northern Beaches.
Her return to work within the prison system is the first step towards getting out of custody but she is yet to be cleared for day release in the community.
Her expected parole hearing in May next year will be a test for the "no body, no parole" laws recently introduced in NSW.
Lane still denies murdering baby Tegan and her remains have never been found.
She would have turned 27 next month.
