New Queensland DNA lab inquiry: Hearing date and lawyers announced

Public hearing dates and lawyers have been announced for a new commission of inquiry into a flawed DNA extraction method blamed for forensic samples failing to identify Shandee Blackburn’s killer.

Shandee Blackburn was stabbed to death walking home from work in Mackay in central Queensland in 2013.

Public hearing dates and lawyers have been announced for a new commission of inquiry into a flawed Queensland DNA extraction method blamed for forensic samples failing to identify Shandee Blackburn’s killer.

The hearings are scheduled to be held in Brisbane during the week commencing October 30, the inquiry said in a brief statement on Monday. Barrister Andrew Fox SC has been appointed senior counsel assisting the inquiry, and Gabriella Rubagotti has been appointed counsel assisting.

“More information about the hearings will be available closer to the date,” the statement said.

Retired Federal Court judge Annabelle Bennett SC will conduct the inquiry, amid concerns about conflicts of interest in a high-powered advisory board set up to watch over the lab.

A website, dnaproject13inquiry.qld.gov.au, has been created with contact details for the new inquiry. “The Commissioner will have relevant powers under the Commission of Inquiry Act 1950 to invite submissions and hold hearings,” the website states.

“The Commissioner will provide a final report to Government on 17 November 2023. The final report will be published here.”

Health Minister Shannon Fentiman this month commissioned the public inquiry into the “Project 13” extraction method, used in Queensland from 2007 to 2016, after revelations that it was implemented despite the state’s lab knowing it was catastrophically failing to recover DNA. Dr Bennett would have “unrestricted” powers to call scientists responsible for the DNA extraction method and other key witnesses to give evidence, Ms Fentiman said.

Independent forensic biologist Kirsty Wright has estimated 100,000 crime scene samples would have been processed using variations of the automated method, raising concerns crucial evidence was missed in serious crimes, including the vicious unsolved stabbing murder of Ms Blackburn in Mackay in 2013.

The new scientist in charge of the lab, Linzi Wilson-Wilde, has been drawn into the scandal because she examined the extraction method for retired judge Walter Sofronoff’s inquiry last year and failed in her expert report to detail the serious problems it was having in recovering DNA.