Qld’s ‘dirty lab’ leaves rape victims at risk of further assault: report

Queensland’s scandal-plagued forensic testing lab continues to be riddled with systemic contamination and testing delays, with DNA results for murder and rape investigation samples delayed by more than 400 days, according to the latest report into the state’s testing regime.

The report into operations at Forensic Science Queensland, led by former forensic biologist-turned-whistleblower Dr Kirsty Wright, unearthed evidence of routine contamination, unreliable results and testing delays, causing major impact to court proceedings, police and victims.

Former NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller was enlisted by the Crisafulli government to lead a new expert taskforce to overhaul the testing facility and adopt recommendations from the latest report.

Wright, who prised open two commissions of inquiry into the lab after blowing the whistle on alleged testing failures in the 2013 murder investigation of Mackay woman Shandee Blackburn, was tasked by the LNP government to review the testing facility.

She said the facility, which is leaned on to examine sensitive evidence from the state’s most violent crimes, was a “dirty lab”, despite a long list of previous recommendations from two major probes.

“They were processing crime scene samples in a dirty lab – they knew this. There was evidence of this for at least a year, a year-and-a-half,” Wright told reporters on Monday.

“They test the surfaces to see how clean the surfaces are before they examine the crime scene sample, and they were repeatedly finding that the examination surfaces were dirty.”

Forensic Science Queensland was established in 2023 following multiple inquiries, one of which revealed a “fundamentally flawed” automated DNA extraction method might have led to offenders potentially escaping conviction from 2007 to 2016.

More than 100,000 samples were ordered to be retested, and two senior lab employees were stood down.

FSQ was also found to have provided unreliable DNA results to police and the courts since early 2023, with systematic contamination issues uncovered.

Wright revealed on Monday there were still 13,000 samples in the backlog that needed to be tested, with the average time to finalise results taking more than 400 days. In NSW, these results are typically completed in five to 10 days.

Among the findings in Wright’s more than 400-page report was that a failure to test rape kits was “likely placing these vulnerable victims at high risk of further rapes or sexual assaults”.

“It is certain the backlog is preventing offenders from being arrested, contributing to reoffending across Queensland, preventing justice for victims, and preventing unidentified remains from being identified,” according to the report.

Wright said the first and second inquiries had revealed a “completely broken laboratory”, adding the facility was still expected to receive more crime scene samples, fix the lab, and review and retest 15 years’ worth of work following the release of findings.

“That’s a complete impossibility, and that’s why the government’s outsourcing plan allows the lab time and space to properly fix itself.”

Premier David Crisafulli said the failures impacted many Queenslanders and were “global in its nature”, and announced a $50 million, two-year program to address the DNA backlog by outsourcing thousands of DNA samples for testing and analysis.

“We haven’t seen anything like this certainly in Australia, but right across the globe, this is the kind of failings that no one ever thought would happen in a democracy like ours,” Crisafulli said.

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice and Minister for Integrity Deb Frecklington said “it was unacceptable that victims of crime were left at risk while waiting for justice” and welcomed the appointment of Fuller to lead the expert team.

“What Dr Wright’s very comprehensive report has outlined is that the forensic lab is a point of critical failure … this will be a tough day for victims in Queensland,” Frecklington said.

“It is important that we have someone of Mick Fuller’s calibre to work with Dr Kirsty Wright and Dr Bruce Budowle in relation to that expert review team.”

Fuller said it was “great privilege to be entrusted with such a transformative task”, which was ultimately to bring Queensland’s forensic testing up to global standard, but said he wouldn’t put a timeframe on seeing change.

“Today is day one … if you think about all the reviews that have happened over time, it’s about operationalising those now and actually making a change for forensic science in Queensland with the government.”

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