Grilling ahead for DNA lab manager

A senior manager at Queensland’s forensic laboratory will be grilled over whether new equipment prompted a change to the way DNA was tested.

Team manager Paula Bris­otto. Picture: NCA NewsWire / John Gass

A senior manager at Queensland’s forensic laboratory will be grilled over whether new equipment prompted a change to the way DNA was tested, casting doubt over potentially thousands of criminal investigations.

Team manager Paula Bris­otto will again take the stand at a public inquiry investigating the lab’s operation on Tuesday morning, after she was repeatedly pressed over lapses in her recall on Friday.

Ms Brisotto was involved in a 2018 decision to introduce a new DNA testing threshold that was designed to improve turnaround times for police but resulted in key evidence being missed in murder and rape investigations.

The management decision meant samples with lower levels of DNA that fell below the threshold, but would still help police solve violent crime, were ignored for almost five years.

Major changes to the lab’s equipment were implemented within days of police agreeing to the unusually high threshold.

The equipment change “significantly increased” the workload of the lab, as scientists needed more time to interpret DNA profiles because the new machines were more advanced.

Counsel assisting the inquiry, Michael Hodge KC, suggested the new testing threshold was designed to mitigate the expected workload increase.

He put to Ms Brisotto that she, along with the lab’s managing scientist Cathie Allen and team manager Justin Howes, wanted to urgently introduce the threshold because of the impending equipment change.

Ms Brisotto replied: “I don’t remember that, I’m sorry. It is a possibility.”

Plans to set a threshold were originally drafted as a project proposal, which required endorsement of about nine scientists at the lab.

Senior scientists Kylie Rika and Amanda Reeves questioned data relied on in the proposal and warned against the new testing procedures.

Realising they would not get necessary sign off from the rest of the management team, Ms Brisotto, Mr Howes and Ms Allen cut them out of the process, Mr Hodge suggested.

The project proposal was converted to an “options paper”, allowing the trio to bypass other scientists and put the decision in the hands of police, he suggested.

The inquiry heard the ­decision to pivot to an ­options paper was unusual and documents suggest it was Ms Bris­otto’s idea, although she told the inquiry she did not recall making the suggestion.

Mr Hodge put to her that she knew Ms Allen, the managing scientist, pushed the threshold on police. “You know because you spoke to Cathie Allen and Justin Howes that the desired outcome was for the QPS to agree to Option 2 (the testing threshold)?”

Ms Brisotto replied: “I don’t know that, I’m sorry.”

Mr Hodge: “Because the advantage of Option 2 is it would reduce workload and that was an urgent thing to address, given the change to (equipment)?

Ms Brisotto: “It was something that had to be considered and a strategy come up with, yes.”

She denied the options paper was slanted to convince police to agree to the threshold.

Ms Allen and Mr Howes were stood down last month after Commissioner Walter Sofronoff released scathing interim findings. Ms Brisotto remains in her position.