DNA inquiry: Cop’s intervention stopped crucial evidence being discarded

A blood spatter at a crime scene and cells on a murder victim’s calf were among the evidence dismissed by a state-run forensic lab.

A spattering of blood on broken glass left at a major crime scene and DNA cells discovered on a murder victim’s calf were both dismissed by Queensland’s state-run forensic lab, which ignored the crucial evidence, labelling it insufficient for processing.

Both critical pieces of evidence would have been ruled out in assisting violent crime investigations had it not been for a police inspector in charge of DNA management having grown increasingly wary of an unusually high threshold for testing forensic material.

Inspector David Neville’s team at Queensland police received a result from the Queensland Health forensic lab that said 33 DNA samples taken from a murder scene in late 2021 had returned with a result of “insufficient for further processing”.

The Forensic Scientific Services had implemented a new procedure to only test samples above a certain measurement, double the number of cells required in NSW, which has become the subject of a commission of inquiry led by ex-Court of Appeals president Walter Sofronoff.

The Inspector told the inquiry that QPS nevertheless requested the lab do further tests on the samples, with 10 of the 33 returning full profiles.

Queensland police inspector David Neville after giving evidence to the commission of inquiry into forensic DNA testing at Brisbane Magistrates Court. Picture: Dan Peled/NCA NewsWire

One particular piece of evidence, taken from the calf of the victim, returned a match to the accused murderer.

Inspector Neville said he was disturbed by the results and questioned the procedures at FSS, emailing the lab to declare: “I think this threshold needs to be reviewed.”

He emailed senior managers at FSS with an extended collection of data that disturbed him and, again, asked for clarification.

At the end of May, he said 393 samples that fell below the threshold from January 2021 that were requested by QPS to be tested, found 33 per cent returned a usable profile, while the success rate for evidence collected for sexual offences was 66 per cent.

Of the DNA collected for sexual assault cases, Inspector Neville said this was “disturbingly high and raises the risk that we may be missing evidence that could identify an offender”.

The Inspector sent an email containing an image of a shard of glass with a red smear and a label from police that read “blood” in December to the lab’s managing scientist, Catherine Allen, who was last week stood down by Queensland Health.

The glass, with a clear indication of blood – which is a noted rich source of DNA – returned from the lab as “insufficient for further testing”.

But he again challenged the threshold, requested further testing, and a result returned to help solve the case.

The inquiry is ongoing.