DNA inquiry: Boss of strife-torn lab accused of changing position

The former executive director of Queensland’s beleaguered DNA lab has been accused of switching their position to blame police for the forensic testing debacle.

The former executive director of Queensland’s beleaguered state-run lab was accused of retrospectively adopting a position in order to blame police for the forensic testing debacle.

Paul Csoban served in the executive role at Forensic Scientific Services at the time an unusually high threshold for testing DNA was implemented, which led to thousands of pieces of evidence in murder and rape cases being dismissed.

The bungle has become the focus of a commission of inquiry, where Mr Csoban was quizzed on Thursday about a report that guided the decision, written by the lab’s team leader and managing scientist.

From 2018, the Queensland Health lab adopted a new procedure to only test samples above a certain measurement – double the number of cells required than NSW.

Various witnesses this week have claimed the report, referred to as the options paper, was misleading in its selection of data and its findings disputed by its own senior scientists.

Mr Csoban insisted police had sufficient information to make the critical call despite claims the report was written in a manner previously described as difficult to read and recommended one option.

“This was a matter for (Queensland Police Service to make that) decision, it was not a matter for Queensland Health to make that call,” he said.

“We did not favour any particular option.”

But this was rejected by counsel assisting the inquiry Michael Hodge KC, who said it was a reconstruction of events from a critical meeting in February 2018.

Senior Sergeant Ewen Taylor outside the inquiry on Thursday. Picture: Sarah Marshall/NCA NewsWire

“You have retrospectively gone back and suggested that it was neutral, when you know that it wasn’t, and this is to pass responsibility to QPS,” he said.

The senior sergeant in charge of the DNA squad at the time, Ewen Taylor, told the inquiry the report was written to force one view, and the lab’s managing scientist Catherine Allen had persuaded police to adopt the threshold.

“Her advice was that the best option was option two (introduce threshold),” he said.

“She explained that of the exhibits that underwent that microcon process, 90 per cent didn’t improve (and) of the remaining 10 per cent that did improve or were a success, only 1.5 per cent of the 100 per cent returned a result.”

Senior Sergeant Taylor said, in hindsight, it was clear to him this was not correct, and that it was actually the 10 per cent that returned a successful result.

Another senior police officer from the forensic unit, Superintendent Dale Frieberg, said she also walked out of the 2018 meeting with a false understanding of the data following the insistence of Queensland Health’s lab managers.

She said her agreement to accept the procedure change was based on her belief “it was the best option at the time”.

“I am not a scientist and relied on and trusted advice provided by the subject matter experts,” she wrote in a submission to the inquiry.

“I was also under the impression that DNA staff could continue to request additional processing as it was received by investigators, therefore did not anticipate an impact on DNA testing results.”

The inquiry is ongoing.