Justice denied in state due to DNA laboratory failures

For more than 30 years, around the world, the use of DNA evidence has transformed criminal justice, bringing countless murderers, rapists and other violent criminals to justice and clearing many of those falsely accused. Given the importance of forensic evidence, it is horrifying that Queensland’s DNA laboratory has mishandled evidence for years, potentially compromising thousands of rape and murder cases. Many of these now will be reviewed after the royal commission-style inquiry into the lab.

The inquiry commissioner, recently retired Queensland Court of Appeal president Walter Sofronoff KC, handed his scathing report to the Palaszczuk government on Tuesday. One of the major problems at the lab, it found, was setting an unusually high threshold below which DNA samples would not be tested. The top scientist at the laboratory, Cathie Allen, had been lying for a long time “to her immediate supervisor and to senior police about the work of the laboratory”, Mr Sofronoff said. She also has lied to the government, victims of crime and to the DNA inquiry. Ms Allen has strenuously denied wrongdoing. She was suspended on full pay from duty, along with her deputy, Justin Howes, since shortly before public hearings began in September. Her future, and that of Mr Howes, will be decided by the government after the Crime and Corruption Commission studies Mr Sofronoff’s report.

Cutting corners with DNA testing, Mr Sofronoff suggested, was intended to make the lab “look good” and improve turnaround times for police. That was despite the fact Ms Allen knew inadequate testing would mean far fewer DNA profiles of offenders being identified. Tens of thousands of DNA samples previously ignored will now be tested. Mr Sofronoff called for a subcommittee of scientists, lawyers and experts to be established to determine which cases should be prioritised for retesting. One case he hopes will be solved through retesting of DNA samples is that of 23-year-old Mackay woman Shandee Blackburn, who was murdered as she walked home from work in the central Queensland coastal city of Mackay in 2013.

Her case was the catalyst for the $6m commission of inquiry after bungled DNA testing was exposed in The Australian’s podcast, Shandee’s Story, by national chief correspondent Hedley Thomas, who also created The Teacher’s Pet podcast. In his report, Mr Sofronoff said Thomas’s “professional skill and determination” had ensured “that there was not the slightest chance that the issues would subside”. The voices of scientists concerned about the lab had been suppressed for years and “but for Mr Thomas’s tenacious agitation of senior political figures” it was possible that the efforts of Inspector David Neville, the manager of the Queensland Police Service’s DNA unit who had raised serious concerns about evidence being missed by the laboratory, “might not have been enough”.

Mr Sofronoff also singled out the bravery of well-credentialled forensic biologist Kirsty Wright, who publicly raised concerns about the handling of evidence in the Shandee Blackburn case. “Her opinion, which was broadcast, was that for a number of reasons it appeared that the DNA laboratory had mishandled the testing of samples. The publicity given to the case, and the potential errors at the laboratory, (were) reinforced by articles published in The Australian newspaper by Mr Thomas and his colleagues Mr David Murray and Ms Lydia Lynch. In late 2021 this adverse publicity had reached such a pitch that the Premier and the Health Minister had to address the issues.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has made the right calls in releasing the report on the day it was handed to her and committing the government to implement its recommendations. Mr Sofronoff has called for sweeping structural changes to the way forensic science services are run in Queensland, and the recruitment of new leadership. A new era in forensic testing in the state is likely, with the establishment of an independent agency, separated from Queensland Health, with more funding and a mandate to test DNA samples thoroughly instead of shelving cases early. While Mr Sofronoff did not blame underfunding for the main failures of the lab, he called for future “certainty of funding year on year to allow the laboratory to invest in new technology and replace outdated systems”. A successful laboratory, he said, “cannot function if it is constantly having to find savings”. He was astounded by what he found in the lab, its mismanagement and the repercussions for justice.

As Thomas writes on Wednesday: “That’s a horror story. It has happened in Queensland. Politicians and senior public servants overseeing DNA labs around the world should be paying a lot of attention.”