Up to 100,000 DNA samples to be retested in Queensland
Up to 100,000 DNA samples will be retested amid fears offenders in Queensland have escaped conviction because of "fatally flawed" processes. A damning report says an automated technique used by the state run forensics lab was never scientifically validated.
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00:00 Today is little vindication for Vicki Blackburn.
00:06 We shouldn't be here, we shouldn't have had to go through this.
00:09 Her daughter Shandi Blackburn was murdered in Mackay in 2013.
00:14 Her killer walks free, in part due to failings in forensic testing.
00:19 To fight for years and years and years, it takes a toll physically, mentally, it takes
00:25 over your whole life.
00:27 A 2008 report by seven scientists labelled Project 13 recommended the use of an automated
00:34 DNA testing system at Queensland's forensics lab, rather than extracting it manually.
00:40 This was despite the automated method yielding up to 92% less DNA than the manual technique.
00:46 Project 13 was fundamentally flawed.
00:51 The DNA lab really did away with scientifically sound methodology.
00:56 They sacrificed that for speed.
00:59 Today a report into Project 13 was publicly released, with Commissioner Annabel Bennett
01:04 recommending all samples tested by the machine be retested.
01:09 Cases between 2007 and 2016 when this automated DNA extraction method was in place will be
01:17 reviewed.
01:18 So that's up to 103,000 samples.
01:22 But the peak body for sexual violence services fears while those cases are retested, even
01:27 further delays in the court system could cause victims to withdraw their proceedings.
01:33 Victims of sexual violence who are currently going through the court processes are feeling
01:37 the impacts of this because the court system is under pressure, there's already current
01:43 delays.
01:44 This was one of the greatest failings in legal proceedings anywhere in any jurisdiction.
01:50 I simply don't trust the Queensland lab to be able to retest those Project 13 samples.
01:57 Dr Kirsty Wright initially raised the alarm about Project 13.
02:01 She's furious that the report notes there's insufficient evidence to find anyone responsible.
02:07 The Commissioner's finding of no accountability of any of the Project 13 scientists is a real
02:13 punch in the guts for all of the victims that have suffered over nine years because of this
02:19 catastrophic failure.
02:20 It can't be, I think, explained away by bad science or bad management.
02:26 The government says the retesting could take three years, with the lab outsourcing work
02:31 domestically and internationally to help with the backlog.
02:35 For victim survivors, it's a further delay in their fight for justice as thousands of
02:40 perpetrators go unpunished.
02:42 [BLANK_AUDIO]