McMurdo to probe Qld forensic services

Failures in Queensland’s government-run laboratory to detect DNA in rape and sexual assault cases will be examined by an independent inquiry into women’s safety.

Margaret McMurdo will lead a taskforce focusing on improving the experience of women and girls across the criminal justice system. Picture: AAP

Failures in Queensland’s government-run laboratory to detect DNA in rape and sexual assault cases will be examined by an independent inquiry into women’s safety.

Led by former Court of Appeal president and head of the Lawyer X royal commission Margaret McMurdo, the taskforce will in June make recommendations to the Palas­zczuk government about improving the experience of women and girls across the criminal justice system.

In a discussion paper released on Tuesday, Ms McMurdo has called on experts and victims to give evidence about their “experiences or observations of victims of sexual violence accessing and using forensic health services in Queensland”.

“Recently, concerns have been raised in The Australian about the capacity of Queensland’s forensic health services to accurately analyse DNA samples in sexual assault investigations,” she noted.

‘Each submission – whether from women and girls, organisations or professionals – is read, valued and considered carefully. We greatly appreciate the time and effort people have put into making such a valuable contribution to our work.

“We need to hear about their experiences to help us understand what is working well in the criminal justice system and what needs to be improved.”

Ms McMurdo’s call for submissions comes after disturbing practices in the government-run forensics lab were exposed in The Australian’s investigative podcast series Shandee’s Story.

Premier Annastacia Palas­zczuk and Health Minister Yvette D’Ath have repeatedly ignored calls from scientists, lawyers and victims for a broad, independent inquiry into systemic failures and errors identified in the lab during the Shandee’s Story series.

The lab’s failures, revealed in its own data, are impeding police ­investigations, misleading the courts and denying victims justice, leading forensic scientist ­Kirsty Wright has said.

In some rape and sexual assault cases, a medical officer swabs the surface of the accused man’s penis in an attempt to identify any cells from the alleged victim.

At a minimum, many good-quality cells are transferred from the male being swabbed, which should provide a DNA profile 100 per cent of the time, Dr Wright said.

However, a scientific paper based on the lab’s data shows that from February 2018 to September 2019, there were 320 of these ­samples, and the lab found “no DNA” in 52 per cent.

Dr Wright found the data buried in a peer-reviewed scientific paper written by research scientist Matt Krosch from the Queensland Police Service’s ­forensics section in 2020.

The Australian last week revealed the state government lab had also set a very high threshold for the minimum DNA required for crime scene samples to be fully tested. The 22 cells required is double the 11 cells required in NSW.

Dr Wright has said there was “potentially a very large number” of cases where offenders weren’t being identified when they should be.

“It’s frightening. It absolutely makes me sick,” she said.

Bruce Morcombe, father of murdered schoolboy Daniel Morcombe, is highly concerned about practices in the lab and said the state government must investigate.

“Somebody is not doing their job and it’s alarming. It actually makes me quite upset,” he said.

Ms McMurdo’s inquiry, which is also examining sexual consent laws, will take submissions until April 8 before making a final report to government by June 30.

Anyone with information about the murder of Shandee Blackburn can contact Hedley Thomas at [e-mail]