Top Queensland cop Katarina Carroll kept in the dark over DNA doubts

Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll was kept in the dark for six months that senior officers harboured major concerns about the state’s forensic laboratory.

Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Queensland Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll was kept in the dark for six months that senior officers harboured major concerns about the state’s forensic laboratory and had launched a secretive review of its results.

Ms Carroll said she was not told about problems with DNA testing until early June, when The Australian published details of an internal police review revealing the lab was not testing potentially crucial forensic evidence. “I understand there were briefings that did not quite make it to my office,” she said on Wednesday.

Forensic scientist Kirsty Wright in November last year called for the lab to be shut down after uncovering forensic failures while investi­gating the unsolved murder of Shandee Blackburn with journalist Hedley Thomas for The Australian’s ­podcast Shandee’s Story.

Dr Wright’s discoveries were not investigated by Queensland Health, but they prompted the head of police DNA management, Inspector David Neville, to begin questioning ­the health department in early December about results from the lab.

By mid-December after a review by his DNA management section, Inspector Neville knew about a third of samples declared “DNA insufficient” were producing profiles when tested.

At the same time, Police Minister Mark Ryan says he was being advised by his department that Dr Wright’s revelations “did not raise any concerns”.

It was not until early June, when the government announced a $6m commission of inquiry into forensic DNA testing, that Ms Carroll and Mr Ryan say they were formally briefed.

Inspector Neville has told the inquiry he tried to alert both Ms Carroll and Mr Ryan about DNA testing problems in late February.

“I had started to follow the continuing coverage of the case in The Australian, given it had raised issues about Queensland testing thresholds,” he wrote in a statement to the inquiry.

On February 10, Health Minister Yvette D’Ath insisted police had not raised concerns about systemic failures in the lab.

Her comments alarmed Inspector Neville, who had been flagging problems with her ­department for more than two months. “I became concerned ­issues raised repeatedly by the QPS to Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services in relation to thresholds were not being reported to the Queensland Health executive,” he said.

Inspector Neville wrote and submitted an executive briefing note and a letter under the hand of Ms Carroll on February 22, but both were withdrawn by his superior, Superintendent Bruce McNab, the inquiry has been told.

Inspector Neville was “unaware this had occurred until June 2022”, raising questions for the inquiry over the police service’s handling of his concerns.

Ms Carroll said the briefing note was withdrawn because her staff believed “they could address these issues with Queensland Health … urgently and quickly; however, it doesn’t appear to have worked that way”.