Shandee Blackburn’s mother urges national review of DNA labs

The mother of murdered Mackay woman Shandee Blackburn has backed calls for a national review of the way DNA laboratories are accredited.

Shandee Blackburn. Picture: Michaela Harlow

The mother of murdered Mackay woman Shandee Blackburn has backed calls for a national review of the way DNA laboratories are accredited, as she marks the 10th anniversary of her daughter’s brutal slaying.

Vicki Blackburn, whose daughter’s unsolved 2013 murder prompted Queensland’s DNA inquiry, said failings uncovered by the royal commission should serve as a “wake-up call” for labs in other states as well.

“It is pretty clear the accreditation process that’s been in place is not doing what it’s supposed to be doing,” she said. “I think the whole process needs to be reviewed and be more in-depth.

“Everybody assumes if a lab has accreditation, then that’s it, you’re fine – but what’s been highlighted in the inquiry is that is certainly not the case.”

Ms Blackburn joins decorated forensic biologist Kirsty Wright, who this week called on state attorneys-general to lead a national overhaul of the way forensic labs are accredited.

Dr Wright is “absolutely certain” evidence is being missed in other Australian states ­because of weak quality standards.

Jennifer Evans, CEO of the National Association of Testing Authorities which accredits DNA labs, believes the national quality framework is sufficient but is considering the inquiry’s findings.

Thursday marks 10 years since Shandee, 23, was left to die after a frenzied knife attack on her walk home from work in Mackay in the early hours of Saturday February 9, 2013.

A 2020 inquest concluded she was killed by her ex-boyfriend John Peros but found no “fresh and compelling evidence” required to charge Mr Peros with murder under the state’s double jeopardy laws.

A jury had acquitted Mr Peros of the murder in 2017. He has always strenuously asserted his innocence.

Coroner David O’Connell last year reopened an investigation into Shandee’s death after the lab’s failings were exposed in The Australian’s podcast series Shandee’s Story by Hedley Thomas.

A spokesman for the coroner said Mr O’Connell was “progressing certain preliminary enquiries in the reopened investigation in the death of Shandee Blackburn and will await the outcome of those enquiries before determining if it is necessary to reopen the inquest”.

Experts commissioned by the DNA inquiry recommended new forensic samples should be taken from Shandee’s shirt, in addition to the retesting of samples previously collected in the case.

Ms Blackburn said the past year had been taxing on herself and her eldest daughter Shannah, but they would not give up hope of bringing Shandee’s killer to justice until “every stone had been overturned”.

“We are still in limbo,” she said.

“Of course we hope they will reopen the inquest and that depends on what they find with their enquiries and retesting.”

The Blackburn family will host a memorial event for Shandee at her old workplace, Harrup Park Country Club, on Saturday night.

“Hedley and Kirsty are coming up and we will be blowing bubbles at sunset for Shandee, as we did when her coffin was lowered,” Ms Blackburn said.

“I have found the one lime-green dress in the whole of Mackay and Shannah has a gorgeous pair of lime-green heels that Shandee would have loved.”