Queensland DNA Inquiry: Lab boss Cathie Allen a ‘prolific liar who oversaw scientific vandalism’

Thousands of criminal cases will be reviewed and a top scientist may face serious action after an inquiry revealed long-running failures.

DNA lab managing scientist Cathie Allen.

Thousands of murder and rape victims will be given another chance at justice after a royal commission-style inquiry recommended cases impacted by ­botched DNA testing at Queensland’s forensics laboratory be ­reviewed within a year.

The health department’s lab, run by a prolific liar who oversaw scientific vandalism during her 15 years as manager, mishandled evidence and compromised thousands of criminal cases.

These and other damning findings were handed down on Tuesday by newly retired Court of Appeal president Walter Sofronoff KC, after a six-month inquiry which will have powerful ramifications for the state’s criminal ­justice system.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she was “absolutely committed to reform” and would convene an urgent meeting of the cabinet budget review committee this week to begin allocating funding.

Under Mr Sofronoff’s blueprint, a new independent agency, separate from Queensland Health, would be funded and mandated to thoroughly test DNA samples instead of shelving cases early.

A former senior criminal ­defence lawyer and solicitor-­general of Queensland, Mr ­Sofronoff was “astounded” by what was uncovered during the inquiry and said the forensic failings were “as big as it gets”.

“We found some very, very ­disturbing and troubling things that were happening in the DNA laboratory,” he said.

Victims of crime – past and future – will benefit from more than 100 recommendations made by Mr Sofronoff, who said even cases where an accused had been ­acquitted could be retried under double jeopardy laws.

Walter Sofronoff, KC, headed the Queensland DNA lab inquiry. Pictures: Jack Tran

“For victims of crime, who may have been told that there’s not enough DNA or that the DNA didn’t come up to proof, there’ll be decisions made about testing some of those samples in some of those cases.

“So thousands of cases will have to be reviewed in that way and thousands of cases will ­require testing.”

Cathie Allen, who has been suspended since September on full pay from duty along with her deputy Justin Howes, was severely criticised in the findings for having lied to police, the government, victims of crime and the ­inquiry.

Described in the report as a “malignancy”, Ms Allen “set out to deceive her executive-director, the director-general and the minister and succeeded in doing so”.

Appalling failings of the lab were exposed by The Australian’s podcast Shandee’s Story and investigated during six weeks of public hearings at a $6m royal commission-style inquiry.

Mr Sofronoff’s report stops short of recommending criminal charges against Ms Allen, despite having found she lied under oath, and that her actions and inaction as lab boss had caused enormous damage to criminal cases and public confidence in the reliability of DNA testing.

However, he and Ms Palaszczuk flagged potential serious repercussions for Ms Allen with the inquiry’s findings to be examined by the state’s Crime and Corruption Commission. Ms Allen has strenuously denied wrong­doing and did not wish to comment on the inquiry’s report.

Mr Sofronoff criticised a scientific paper Ms Allen used to persuade unknowing police to accept a third-rate testing system. “Nonsense. Specious. Untrue. And bogus,” he said of parts of the paper.

Reasons for her deception were not made out in the report, but Mr Sofronoff believes it was to make the lab “look good” and improve turnaround times for police. He agreed Ms Allen was the “single biggest problem” at the lab.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: David Clark

“I didn’t look at the budget issue as a separate thing, but Cathie Allen certainly said that she felt financial pressure in her job and was doing the best she could,” he said.

“(But) it didn’t seem to me that the lack of money was the reason for most of the things that I found.”

Mr Sofronoff dedicated the work of the DNA inquiry “to the memory of Shandee Blackburn”, a 23-year-old woman who was stabbed to death on her walk home from work in 2013.

The failures of the laboratory to detect DNA in the Blackburn case were investigated closely in The Australian’s podcast series Shandee’s Story with forensic biologist Kirsty Wright, triggering the DNA inquiry.

Shandee’s mother Vicki Blackburn said her daughter would be “quite chuffed” to have such a powerful and enduring legacy. “Shandee always fought for the underdog and always felt an allegiance to anyone who felt out of place,” she said.

“For her memory, to have been the instigator of all this for people who have been denied justice, I think that especially would mean a lot to her.”

Dr Kirsty Wright. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Richard Gosling

Mr Sofronoff praised the courage of Dr Wright who, through extraordinary diligence, began exposing the lab’s failings in late 2021, “only because the public good required her to do so”.

“In my opinion her willingness to take a public stand was an act of real bravery,” he said.

Mr Sofronoff’s report states: “In late 2021 this adverse publicity had reached such a pitch that the Premier and the Health Minister had to address the issues. Briefed by the department, which had relied upon information provided by the leader of the laboratory, the managing scientist Ms Cathie Allen, the ministers assured the public that all was well at the laboratory.

“They could not have known that Ms Allen had fed them misleading information and that, for a long time, she had actually been lying to her immediate supervisor and to senior police about the work of the laboratory.”

Mr Sofronoff found several scientists employed at the lab had been clamouring for years about a dangerous lack of scientific integrity.

“In a state of affairs in which there was a conflict between what a newspaper was claiming and the advice that ministers were solemnly being given by senior department figures, nothing was done,” Mr Sofronoff wrote.

“It is important that those who read this report know that these problems at the laboratory would never have been uncovered but for the persistence of certain determined individuals.”