‘Deliberately crafted series of lies’: inquiry scathing of top scientist

The state’s DNA lab boss deliberately misled police into using inferior testing methods that compromised years of major criminal investigations, an inquiry has found.

Queensland lab boss Cathie Allen deliberately misled police into using inferior testing methods that catastrophically compromised years’ worth of major criminal investigations and caused enduring damage to the state’s justice system.

An inquiry into the disastrous failings of the state-run lab found Ms Allen then used a “deliberately crafted series of lies and misleading dodges” to justify the controversial decision, lying to police, her own staff and senior managers in a bid to cover up the deceit and justify her actions.

The damning findings were handed down on Tuesday by retired Supreme Court justice Walter Sofronoff KC who made more than 120 recommendations for improvements to the state’s Forensic and Scientific Services, warning his 500-page report made for “horrible reading” and the failings were “as big as it gets”.

The scathing report arising from a $6m commission of inquiry calls for urgent changes to the laboratory, including a need for a significant injection of funding, sweeping changes to bring procedures into line with best practices, new leadership and an organisational restructure.

Mr Sofronoff – a retired Court of Appeal president who is widely regarded as one of the best legal minds in the country – praised the bravery of whistleblowers who had risked their careers to expose the failings.

“I have found that serious problems have existed within the laboratory for many years, some of them amounting to grave maladministration involving dishonesty,” Mr Sofronoff wrote in his report

Asked whether he thought there was a criminal case against any of those involved, Mr Sofronoff said he did not know but warned there would be “consequences for somebody”.

He said the ­report would be forwarded to the Crime and Corruption Commission, which could consider criminal charges.

The inquiry found poor case management over years had resulted in a significant number of criminal investigations in which evidence may have been missed and that it was crucial that widespread retesting of samples was undertaken.

“Those failures have created a real risk of miscarriage of justice in the criminal justice system,” the report said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the government was “absolutely committed” to the agenda of reform to restore confidence in the system and ensure victims had access to justice.

She confirmed cabinet’s budget review committee would meet on Thursday to discuss the report.

“We’ll be looking at the ­financial recommendations that are needed to implement these reforms,” she said.

Fears had been raised that double jeopardy laws could impede the prosecution of cases that have already been tried if fresh DNA was discovered upon retesting of impacted cases.

But during a press conference, Mr Sofronoff said while that was ultimately a matter for the courts, there could be a case to argue that new evidence was obtained that could not reasonably have been ­obtained at the time, meaning double jeopardy did not apply.

Commissioner Walter Sofronoff hands down his findings on Tuesday. Picture: Tertius Pickard/NCA NewsWire

Extensive evidence was gathered about an “options paper” Ms Allen had proposed to police which the inquiry found “misled” the service into accepting changes that resulted in thousands of crime samples going untested and incorrectly reported as having insufficient DNA for profiling.

Mr Sofronoff reported that many of the failings had been allowed to continue because people in positions more senior to Ms Allen were unable to understand the extremely complicated science and whistleblowers were unfairly painted as disgruntled employees.

“When in June 2022 the director-general asked for the testing of samples to revert to the pre-2018 processes, neither he nor anyone above Ms Allen had the expertise to realise that Ms Allen had given them wrong and dangerously misleading advice – and, as I have found, deliberately so,” Mr Sofronoff said.

He found that Ms Allen “deliberately provided false information” to her executive director Lara Keller, minimising the number of samples likely to be impacted by the option she encouraged police to adopt. The inquiry found Ms Allen was motivated to lie to avoid criticism for the ­controversial decision and to keep the process in place ­because it improved turnaround times and eased ­backlogs.

“Nobody could have imagined that a scientist and public servant, Ms Allen, was deliberately misleading them,” the report said.

“As a result, the department leadership was not equipped to grapple with the real problem: a malignancy in the scientific management of FSS.”

Queensland DNA boss Cathie Allen gives evidence during the inquiry.

The report found Queensland Health senior executives discussed the potential of an external review into the lab’s processes in March 2022 amid mounting media interest, but it took a month to agree on a terms of reference and the idea was jettisoned after the inquiry was announced.

Mr Sofronoff concluded insufficient steps had been taken to get the external review off the ground “despite the increasingly urgent concerns being raised by scientists, the QPS and The Australian (newspaper)”.

He also found the lack of communication between QPS and Health, and the “failure to treat” concerns raised by police urgently, “contributed” to unnecessary delays in setting up an independent review”.

Mr Sofronoff said, on the whole, scientists in the DNA lab were people of the “utmost skill, dedication and integrity” and he had a “great deal of confidence” in them.

“For these reasons, I am of the firm opinion that, provided government is willing to pay for the establishment of a sound administrative structure, supported by the employment of eminent leaders, the future of forensic science in Queensland will be a rich and fruitful one,” he said.

The state opposition took aim at the government for not acting sooner, criticising the Premier and the Health Minister for dragging their heels before calling for the inquiry.

“The Minister can say she was given bad advice, but good ministers ask good questions and go looking for information,” Opposition Leader David Crisafulli said.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

●All major crime cases since 2018 where the lab reported “DNA insufficient for further processing, or since 2012 if it fell outside QPS-defined “hot jobs”, should be reviewed within 12 months to determine which cases or samples need to be further tested.

●The lab should be renamed the “forensic science institute” and put under the umbrella of the Justice Department, not Health. Legislation will be required.

●In the interim, Queensland Health should appoint a leading forensic DNA expert to head up reform of the lab.

●Government “must ensure sufficient funding” provided to all relevant agencies to ensure report recommendations are implement in a timely and supported manner.

●Introduce “early evidence kits”, especially in regional and remote areas, to ensure no evidence is lost where patients may have to wait or be taken to a larger centre for testing.

●Establish a “permanent advisory group” to consider, monitor and make recommendations about the best practice for forensic medical examinations.

●Lab to review bone and teeth samples processed since mid-2019 from which it was not possible to obtain a single-source DNA profile and get them retested at an external lab.

●Lab must cease all bone-related casework until a suitable procedure for cleaning equipment is in place.

●Queensland Police staff who deal with DNA should “promptly” be given training regarding DNA results and options for retesting and further testing.