’Deliberate cruelty’: Mum of slain Shandee blasts DNA test bungle

The murder of her beloved daughter, Mackay woman Shandee Blackburn, nine years ago has taken its toll on her mum, who says “still we’ve got more to find out” from an inquiry into bungled DNA samples.

The mother of murdered Mackay woman Shandee Blackburn said the decision not to undertake detailed testing of thousands of low-level DNA samples was an act of “deliberate cruelty” and the consequences for victims of crime and their families should have been known.

An explosive interim report was released on Tuesday ahead of the Commission of Inquiry into Forensic DNA Testing in Queensland that criticised a decision made in 2018 not to further test low-level samples, affecting an unknown number of major crimes including murder and rape.

Former Court of Appeal president Walter Sofronoff, appointed commissioner of the inquiry, wrote in the report that the state-run forensic laboratory had “misled” courts by describing test results as “no DNA detected” or “insufficient DNA for analysis” when more thorough testing could have yielded a result.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk meets Vicki Blackburn and daughter Shannah.

Issues around DNA testing came to light via the podcast Shandee’s Story, which explored the 2013 stabbing murder of 23-year-old Shandee Blackburn in her home town of Mackay.

Shandee was stabbed more than 20 times in a frenzied attack as she walked home from work.

Questions about DNA testing thresholds were also raised by the Queensland Police Service in a submission to the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce.

Shandee’s mother Vicki said though Shandee’s murder happened before the 2018 decision to not further test low-level samples, she believed there were serious flaws relating to DNA in her daughter’s case.

Shandee Blackburn.

Independent forensic biologist Dr Kirsty Wright, who worked on Shandee’s Story, identified a series of problems, including tests that were conducted on a swab from a pool of blood where Shandee died that bafflingly found no DNA was present.

A police taskforce has now been set up to examine cases relevant to the 2018 decision to see whether unsolved crimes can now be progressed.

“I was talking to someone the other day and I said, this is deliberate cruelty,” Vicki said.

“This has not happened by accident.

“The people who have made this decision, for whatever reason, they have to have been aware of the consequences on victims and those victims are people.

“I can only speak for what we’ve been through and Shannah (Shandee’s sister) and I are really struggling.

“It’s taken its toll for over nine years of going through this and still we’ve got more to find out.

Tributes for Shandee Blackburn at the murder scene in Mackay.

“And if we do get justice, we’re all going to be retraumatised all over again.

“It’s horrific … and as much as we try to get on with our lives and live the rest of our lives, it’s not the same.”

She said Dr Wright’s work on her daughter’s case was ignored for too long and the state government should have acted sooner.

“She’s had to make a decision to stick her neck out and put her reputation on the line, not to mention the hours upon hours that she’s spent on this and nobody had taken what she said seriously,” Vicki said.

“That’s quite offensive for me – with a female Health Minister, Premier and Attorney-General, I find that rather offensive that nobody stood behind (Dr Wright) and said thankyou for bringing this to our attention.

“(Nobody said) thankyou for all the work you’ve done off your own back, you’ve put yourself out there and we will take it seriously.

Police at the crime scene in Mackay after Shandee Blackburn’s murder. Picture: Lee Constable/Daily Mercury

“I don’t mean to be particularly critical of anybody … but now it’s come to the stage where I think Walter (Sofronoff) is going to bring as much as he can into the light.

“And that’s something we’ve always fought for Shandee – truth and justice – and now it’s, how many other victims and their families will be in the same position.”

Vicki said she believed Shandee’s legacy would be helping other victims find justice through exposing problems with the state’s DNA testing procedures.

“I was saying to Shannah yesterday, ‘how do you think Shandee would actually feel about all this’, and she said, ‘she’d be blown away’,” she said.

“Shandee wasn’t important to anybody but us – she was our Shandee.

“We’ve not got to a place where we’re satisfied we can live with it, where we’re satisfied we’ve done everything we can for Shandee.

“We can’t breathe, you can’t put that behind you.

“I think what’s going to come out in this inquiry is going to be quite shocking.”

Asked this week why the government waited so long to act, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said: “I’m not going to go over old history.

“We want to get to the bottom of this, to know who was responsible, we want justice for victims – that is paramount here.”