Fears over DNA chief Linzi Wilson-Wilde’s ties with overseer
A scandal plaguing the new chief of Queensland’s DNA lab claims her associations with scientific experts overseeing her work leave whistleblowers nowhere to turn.
A scandal plaguing the new chief of Queensland’s DNA lab has spread to a high-powered advisory board, with claims her associations with scientific experts overseeing her work leave whistleblowers nowhere to turn.
Forensic Science Queensland chief executive Linzi Wilson-Wilde faced calls to quit this week from Vicki Blackburn, whose 23-year-old daughter Shandee was stabbed to death walking home from work in Mackay in 2013.
Ms Blackburn and independent forensic scientist Kirsty Wright said they had lost confidence in Professor Wilson-Wilde over an expert report she prepared for retired judge Walter Sofronoff KC’s landmark inquiry into the lab last year.
Professor Wilson-Wilde failed in her inquiry report to detail a catastrophic flaw in a DNA extraction method that has been blamed by Dr Wright for the failure to identify Blackburn’s killer, The Weekend Australian revealed last week.
Retired Queensland District Court judge Julie Dick SC, as co-chair with Mr Sofronoff of a new advisory board overseeing the lab, maintained strong support for Professor Wilson-Wilde this week, citing the high regard for her among the board’s scientific experts.
However, Dr Wright has revealed she felt unable to go to the board with her concerns due to Professor Wilson-Wilde’s connections with the board’s scientists, including Victoria Police forensic services director Rebecca Kogios.
“It’s very well known among the national forensic community that Linzi and Dr Kogios are very close colleagues and friends,” Dr Wright said.
“That’s one of the main reasons I didn’t take my concerns to the DNA advisory board.”
Professor Wilson-Wilde is also connected to the advisory board’s two other scientific experts, Niamh Nic Daeid and Sheila Willis, through the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science at the University of Dundee.
Professor Nic Daeid is the Leverhulme Research Centre’s director, and Dr Willis is on the same centre’s advisory board and is one of its 10 honorary fellows.
Professor Wilson-Wilde is also one of the Leverhulme Research Centre’s advisory fellows, presented its annual lecture in August 2022 and has been pictured with Professor Nic Daeid at scientific gatherings in recent years.
Professor Wilson-Wilde is an ex officio member of the Forensic Science Queensland advisory board, which is overseeing her work and includes some of the most accomplished figures in the state’s criminal justice system.
It is understood Professor Wilson-Wilde and Dr Kogios were jointly chosen by Queensland Health to lead an internal review after The Australian’s investigative podcast Shandee’s Story revealed the DNA lab’s failures, prior to the announcement of the Sofronoff inquiry.
In a 2017 book titled Expert Evidence, Professor Wilson-Wilde and Dr Kogios were co-authors of a chapter on DNA profiling in criminal organisations.
For a 2021 article for the Australian Journal of Forensic Science titled `The merits of women’, Wilson-Wilde detailed the inspiring stories of 10 female forensic science leaders, the first being Dr Kogios.
Dr Wright said the board should follow similar guidelines to scientific peer reviewers, who were advised to avoid overseeing colleagues they have recently published or worked with.
The board’s scientific members should also be independent of each other, she said.
Prior to being headhunted from South Australia in December last year to run the lab, Professor Wilson-Wilde with Dr Kogios put forward scientific candidates for the board.
Professor Wilson-Wilde said this occurred after she was asked in November if she was interested in being a paid chair on the board and whether she could suggest other suitably qualified and eminent scientists to be involved.
“In response to a request, Dr Rebecca Kogios and I provided a list of 16 possible local and international candidates, which included us,” she said.
The board’s membership has become an issue after Dr Wright revealed a flawed DNA extraction method used in the Blackburn investigation was failing before it was even introduced in 2007.
A scientific report reviewed by Professor Wilson-Wilde during her work for the inquiry showed that in testing of the automated extraction method it was recovering 92 per cent less DNA than a manual method.
The abstract or executive summary of the “Project 13” report that Professor Wilson-Wilde reviewed falsely stated that results from the automated method were “comparable” with the manual method and recommended its use.
Professor Wilson-Wilde’s inquiry report did not mention these issues and they were not covered in the Sofronoff inquiry. Dr Wright only discovered the problems in the Project 13 report after the inquiry.
Professor Wilson-Wilde says she was engaged to examine a separate issue of the method contaminating crime scene samples soon, and that other experts were engaged to look at “yield” issues.
Health Minister Shannon Fentiman and her department said they were standing by the powerful DNA chief. The Board said it was considering its response to questions from The Weekend Australian about potential or perceived conflicts of interest.
The advisory board has vast and broad experience. In addition to the two retired judges co-chairing it and the three scientific experts, it includes: a victims’ representative, The Women’s Centre Townsville chief executive Catherine Crawford; Legal Aid Queensland director for criminal law services Kerry Bichel; barrister Ruth O’Gorman KC; a Director of Public Prosecutions representative; criminal defence lawyer Glen Cranny; police assistant commissioner Brian Codd; Queensland Health acting director-general Michael Walsh; Justice and Attorney-General’s department acting director-general Jasmina Joldic; and First Nations representative, barrister Matt Jackson.
Ms Dick told a media conference on Wednesday: “The DNA advisory board has very eminent international and interstate scientists. I’ve been to every meeting.
“So does the forensic justice board. I’ve been to every meeting. There has been not one skerrick of criticism of Professor Wilson-Wilde.
“She has enormous commitment, intelligence and integrity.
“I’m speaking for myself but I can tell you I’ve been to every meeting and the attitude to her from eminent scientists and lawyers has been the same.”
Mr Sofronoff has said the board’s key purpose is to provide an independent body whistleblowers can approach with concerns.
His inquiry heard scientists in the lab were cowed into silence under previous management.
“DNA is such a difficult to understand subject that when problems arise there is nobody that insider scientists can go to, to air any particular problems they’ve got if they don’t get satisfaction from the boss,” he told the ABC in June.
Queensland Health said the advisory board was independent of the department and declined to answer questions about the scientific experts.
“Any questions relating to the management of the Board and its governance processes, including managing conflict of interest, are matters for the Board to address,” a spokeswoman said.
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