Seconds after a Sydney jury found she had murdered her newborn baby, Keli Lane screamed "oh no" and collapsed with a thud on the dock floor.
Her anguished cry was echoed by her sobbing mother, Sandra Lane, while many of the obviously distressed jurors had tears in their eyes.
Almost everyone in the crowded NSW Supreme Court room seemed affected by the raw emotion before Justice Anthony Whealy adjourned the case so Lane could get medical help.
The 35-year-old former water polo champion had denied murdering two-day old Tegan Lane on September 14, 1996 after they left Auburn hospital.
She claimed she handed the infant over to the baby's father but, despite nationwide searches, police found no trace of him or Tegan.
She was accused of murdering the infant and secretly adopting out two other babies so as not to dent her "golden girl" reputation.
The jury of six women and six men had been deliberating for a week without a verdict, when the judge gave them the option of a majority 11-one decision on Monday afternoon.
Earlier, he had delayed calling them into court to answer questions after being told "some emotion is being experienced in the jury room".
When the court resumed after the verdict and Lane's collapse, she looked shell-shocked but sat quietly in the dock beside her solicitor, who had her arm around her.
For the first time since the trial began in August, Lane did not stand up when the jurors returned to court to be discharged by the judge.
Justice Whealy refused to continue her bail, saying he had "great sympathy" for Lane but it would be "a very unfair result" to grant bail. This was because it could give her false hope as the crime she had been found guilty of carried a substantial sentence.
Lane also was found guilty of three counts of making a false statement on oath in relation to documents dealing with her adopting out the two other babies.
Outside court, John Borovnik - the Department of Community Services worker who first reported Tegan missing - said justice had been done.
"Tegan never had a voice, it's in memory of Tegan," he said.
Mr Borovnik said all Lane could come up with was a statement saying Tegan was alive and happy.
"If she is alive and well, where is she?" he asked.
Crown prosecutor Mark Tedeschi QC contended Lane secretly hid her three pregnancies and births as she had not wanted to be saddled with the responsibility of children. As well as being motivated by her Olympic ambitions, her career and social life, Lane had "an overwhelming fear of rejection" by family and friends if they knew of her pregnancies. Mr Tedeschi maintained Lane had never intended taking any of her babies home but wanted a "permanent" solution.
While he could not say how she murdered Tegan or how she disposed of her body, Mr Tedeschi urged jurors to reject "pigs might fly" theories about the infant's fate.
Her claim about handing Tegan over to the infant's father, a secret short-term lover, and the man's live-in partner was "inherently unbelievable".
In his directions to the jurors, Justice Whealy said they must acquit Lane if there was a reasonable possibility Tegan was alive or she was handed over to someone else.
But he also said if they were satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Lane, by a deliberate act caused the death of Tegan and it was done with intent to kill her, she should be found guilty.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/lane-collapses-at-murder-guilty-verdict-20101213-18uus.html