Fate of DNA lab staff kept secret after damning commission of inquiry

Queensland Health have refused to confirm the fate of multiple staff suspended from the state’s troubled DNA testing lab, as a key advisory board tasked with overhauling the forensics system is yet to meet.

Queensland Health have refused to confirm the fate of multiple staff suspended from the state’s troubled DNA testing lab in the wake of a damning Commission of Inquiry, as a key advisory board tasked with overhauling the system is yet to meet.

The two co-chairs, Walter Sofronoff KC and Julie Dick SC,  will meet at the Queensland laboratory on Thursday.

The Courier-Mail understands a number of forensic staff were suspended on full pay, including forensic lab boss Cathie Allen, who was grilled over several days during the inquiry on her role in the fiasco.

DNA lab boss Cathie Allen is understood to be one of a number of staff stood down.

A Queensland Health spokeswoman confirmed “a number of Forensic and Scientific Services staff have been suspended as a result of the findings of the Commission of Inquiry into Forensic DNA testing in Queensland” – but refused to say whether they had responded to show cause notices or whether Director-General Shaun Drummond had ruled on their positions.

“It would be inappropriate to comment further due to privacy reasons,” she said.

The inquiry uncovered shocking revelations including that more than 1800 false witness statements in at least 1260 court cases were made by the troubled Queensland Health FSS on whether DNA had been detected, due to a major flaw in how samples were being tested.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Commissioner Walter Sofronoff during a media conference. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

Ms Allen’s impact on the lab in particular was a key component of Commissioner Sofronoff’s report.

The former judge wrote the lab boss had fed the ministers involved “misleading information”, and that “she had actually been lying to her immediate supervisor and to senior police about the work of the laboratory”.

Mr Sofronoff made more than 100 recommendations in a 500-page report on the catastrophic failings of the lab, which he said had existed for “many years”.

“(And) some of them amounting to grave maladministration involving dishonesty”, he wrote.

Mr Sofronoff was appointed alongside fellow retired judge Ms Dick SC to co-chair the Forensic Science Queensland’s new interim advisory board last month.

A spokesman for Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman said a meeting would soon be held between the co-chairs, Health Minister Yvette D’Ath and Professor Linzi Wilson-Wilde, who was appointed as interim chief executive of Forensic Science Queensland.

Queensland Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

“It is envisaged that the Board will be comprised of twelve people, including the two co-chairs. These members will be jointly appointed by the Attorney-General and the Minister for Health,” the spokesman said.

The state government has committed every case impacted by the failings of the Queensland lab would be reviewed to determine whether there will be need for further analysis.

Ms Fentiman’s spokesman said on Wednesday “the potential impact this may have on the court system will continue to be monitored”.

At the time of the announcement on January 23, Ms D’Ath said “work had already begun on long-term reforms”, and the advisory board would be “critical to the delivery of forensic scientific services in Queensland”.