Palaszczuk government’s $1m for victims traumatised by DNA bungle

The fallout from the DNA bungle at the state-run lab continues as the state government reveals a funding boost to assist traumatised sexual assault victims.

Sexual assault service providers will be given a $1 million boost from the Palaszczuk government to assist victims traumatised by the state-run lab’s dismissal of forensic evidence.

Thousands of samples from murder and rape cases were never properly examined by Queensland Health’s forensic lab over a four-year period after an unusually high threshold for testing DNA was introduced.

Crime scene samples will now be retested as the blame game over the extraordinary implementation of the threshold is scrutinised in an ongoing commission of inquiry led by ex-Court of Appeals president Walter Sofronoff.

But the findings were also expected to have a traumatic impact on sexual assault survivors who may never be given access to justice.

Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman, who is also the Minster for Violence Prevention, said the funding boost would help service providers care for the expected spike in the number of those who need support.

“We recognise that this is a difficult time for victim-survivors and some may need support to manage the impact of revisiting this trauma,” she said.

Ms Fentiman said it is a traumatic time for survivors of sexual assault. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Ms Fentiman said a specialist adviser will also be appointed to work with the Queensland Police Service’s Taskforce Helix to support a trauma informed response to victims.

The adviser will help support services with cultural and language barriers for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons.

Last month, the state’s legal fraternity flagged an avalanche of criminal appeals in the wake of the revelations, with leading defence lawyer Bill Potts warning the failure meant many victims of crime would never see justice.

He said hundreds of criminal cases involving the most serious crimes including rape and murder had been thrown into doubt.

“There are cases where investigators have not proceeded to charge people because of a lack of DNA, whereas it turns out there certainly was but it was either not collected or tested properly and the end effect of that is there may be many investigations reopened now,” Mr Potts said.

Hearings for the inquiry into the DNA bungle will continue on Monday when counsels assisting are expected to focus on scientific issues at the lab and how the alleged toxic culture impacted its capacity to test forensic evidence.

From Monday to Wednesday, half-a-dozen scientists and senior scientists from Forensic Scientific Services will give evidence.

INVESTIGATIONS TAINTED BY TESTING BUNGLE

• Murder in late 2021: 33 samples rejected by FSS as “insufficient DNA for further testing”, but 10 were later found to contain usable DNA, including evidence to advance investigation

• Rape in late 2021: Nine samples returned by FSS as “insufficient DNA for further testing”, but all nine returned usable profiles after insistence from QPS, including a match with suspected offender

• Murder in late 2018: Four samples returned by FSS as “insufficient DNA for further testing”, but after further processing at the request of QPS, three returned usable profiles

• Between January 2021 and May 2022: 393 samples returned as “insufficient DNA for further testing”. But after QPS requested further testing, 33 per cent returned a usable profile, while the success rate for evidence collected for sexual offences was 66 per cent