Queensland forensic services will be “rebuilt from the ground up” and double jeopardy laws may be reformed to re-prosecute serious crimes after a damning report into the state-run DNA lab.
A four-month inquiry into the state’s embattled DNA testing system found it failed to properly test samples for years because of “grave maladministration involving dishonesty”.
The report revealed lab managers had focused on speed rather than accuracy in DNA testing and “that scourge has invaded” the validation of processes and equipment used, time management and resources.
Forensic services will undergo radical, long term structural change after the government accepted all 123 of Commissioner Walter Sofronoff’s recommendations, Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said on Thursday.
“Forensic services in Queensland needs to be rebuilt from the ground up and that’s what we’re going to do,” she said.
Development of a new forensic unit will take place in 2023 and work has begun on an interim unit with an independent board and a new chief executive officer.
Director of Forensic Science SA Linzi Wilson-Wilde, who gave expert evidence to the commission, has been announced as the new CEO.
Three subcommittees will be established to advise on scientific and technical best practice, best practice for sexual assault response and the priorities for retrospective case analysis.
Three staff members at the lab had been issued with show-cause letters and another two would be given please-explain letters regarding matters raised in the report, Ms D’Ath said.
Managing scientist Cathie Allen and team manager Justin Howes are on suspension.
Mr Sofronoff recommended Forensic and Scientific Services be restructured with an independent head scientist focused on scientific integrity and serving the criminal justice system.
“Thousands of cases” could be reviewed and crime scene samples retested for DNA, potentially by a panel including a scientist, a police officer, a prosecutor and a lawyer.
Queensland’s double jeopardy laws, that generally prevent an accused person being tried for the same crime twice, are also being examined.
“Queensland has some of the narrowest double jeopardy exception laws, and we want to look at broadening that fresh and compelling exception to double jeopardy so that it applies to more serious offences, not just murder,” Attorney-General Shannon Fentiman said.
Rape and sexual assault are among the serious offences being looked at as part of the reform, Ms Fentiman said.
The Commission’s report attributes much of the blame for failures within the lab to Ms Allen and the way her role was structured.
Ms Allen tried to cover up mounting problems with superiors, lab staff and police using a “deliberately crafted series of lies and misleading dodges”, the report says.
“This state of affairs has been caused by both the structure of her role within FSS and her personal performance of it,” it says.
© AAP 2022
