A powerful public probe into the Queensland government’s forensic lab has held its first public hearing after an interim report rocked the state’s criminal justice system.
Senior staff within Queensland’s state-run DNA lab raised internal concerns about a move to stop automatically testing some samples in more detail as part of a “trade off” between wait times for the results and their benefit to police.
ultimately resulted in expert witness statements given to police and courts being “untrue” or “misleading”Counsel assisting the inquiry, Michael Hodge KC, told the first day of a set of hearings expected to run throughout this week about an email from members of the Forensic and Scientific Services lab’s management group. The email raised concerns about the 2018 decision and the short time for consultation.
Two members of the management group, which usually signs off on all changes to be processed, wrote back, taking issue with the suggestion there was “minimal value” in continuing to test all samples to a higher level and urgency of consultation. Commissioner Walter Sofronoff KC questions Forensic and Scientific Services senior scientist Kylie Rika during the hearing on Monday.
On Monday, the inquiry heard that staff raised concern about the potential for the statements to cause useful DNA profiles to be missed on the day they were told of the change in 2018, and on multiple occasions after.Hodge outlined an apparent lack of notice given to police officials overseeing that agency’s side of the forensic process when changes were made this year as details of the lab issues emerged.
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