CQ rape case year-long delay due to DNA test outstanding

A Central Queensland man accused of rape will have to wait until 2025 to defend the allegations as the cases experiencing year-long delays start to pile up.

HEALTH: scientist, doctor, asistant working at the laboratory using pipette; biotechnology generic

A Central Queensland man accused of rape will have to wait until 2025 to defend the allegations after advise from Queensland’s delay-plagued forensics laboratory about crucial evidence.

The defendant, who cannot be named for legal reasons, had five charges presented in Rockhampton District Court on February 23- one count of rape, three of common assault and one of assault occasioning bodily harm while armed.

Defence barrister Sheridan Shaw said there was outstanding DNA evidence that was “pertinent” to the defence case.

Crown prosecutor Kathryn Walker said the laboratory “was not giving ETAs before the start of next year”.

Judge Jeff Clarke set the case down for a “notional listing” trial to start February 3, 2025, “to get things moving”.

He said he would do the same for another rape case where the DNA evidence was crucial.

Judge Clarke also listed first matter for review on December 9, 2024.

The defendant was remanded in custody.

This comes only four months after Rockhampton’s sitting Supreme Court judge, Justice Graeme Crow, separately slammed the state-run facility over delays in testing illicit drugs that was crucial for trials for alleged serious drug possession cases to take place.

The Honourable Justice Graeme Crow. Pic Annette Dew

Department of Public Prosecutions’ officer Tessa Wormsley told the Supreme Court in October what she had been told by Queensland’s Forensic and Scientific Services (FSS) regarding DNA testing of a bag of drugs.

“There was essentially a priority list for the work to be completed until the end of the year and that list contains matters that have already had trials and hearings adjourned,” Ms Wormsley said

“So that, unfortunately, doesn’t seem that will be completed this year.”

FSS has been under fire since allegations were made in a podcast looking into Mackay’s Shandee Blackburn’s murder case.

Dr Kirsty Wright worked with NewsCorp investigative journalist Hedley Thomas in examining the investigation into Ms Blackburn’s murder which revealed major errors and problems at the lab and led to the high profile inquiry, led by Walter Sofronoff KC.

Journalist Hedley Thomas, forensic scientist Dr Kirsty Wright and Vicki Blackburn, Commission of Inquiry into forensic DNA testing in QLD, Brisbane. Picture: Liam Kidston

The inquiry’s final report, handed down in December, exposed flawed forensic testing procedures that had a devastating impact on the criminal justice system.

Nearly 30 scientists have since been recruited to rebuild the state-run facility as the government commits almost another $100 million to deliver critical reforms.

However, it was recently revealed the number of cases needing review had soared to 37,000.

Justice Crow, during a mention in Rockhampton on October 12, said it was creating difficulties if no one knew when forensics were completed.

“What’s the solution? Does (a person) sit in prison forever until the government gets its act together?” he said.