The inquiry was prompted by shortcomings in Shandee Blackburn’s case and the Queensland Police Service requesting hundreds of rape cases to be retested by the lab, run by Queensland Health.
The state’s DNA lab changed a crucial testing rule only a week before an inquiry began into its processes, leaving hundreds of rape and homicide cases under a cloud.
Internationally, this testing of low-level DNA is accepted and used to successfully identify assailants, the inquiry heard. “A week ago, on August 19, a further decision was made by Queensland Health to concentrate the samples before further testing and subject to some qualifications of detail, that appears to have been a reversion to the process as it existed immediately [before 2018].”
“However, if I find specific systemic errors then I might need to recommend that a certain category or class of matters should be reviewed, retested or reconsidered, and this may indirectly affect individual matters,” he said.The inquiry will examine the lab’s systems, its relationship with the QPS, which partly funds the lab, and whether testing adheres to standards.
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