Page 70 - Walter Sofronoff News Today

Commission of Inquiry into Forensic DNA Testing hears police demanded retesting, resulting in profile found to match offender

The lab is under scrutiny after years of mounting concerns over testing failures, and last week's bombshell interim report from Walter Sofronoff KC found ""untrue"" or ""misleading"" statements had been issued to the courts.

The managing scientist at Queensland’s state-run forensic lab gave “perhaps untrue” advice about testing procedures to her police counterpart, an inquiry has heard.

Commission of inquiry hears changes to thresholds were proposed in 2017 to increase testing speed and free up money

Exclusive: state government was aware of problems at forensic lab, which included bullying complaints and ‘vendettas’ against managers

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has described it as “perhaps one of the most concerning reports that our state has seen”.

Hundreds of prisoners convicted of criminal offences where the prosecution has relied upon DNA evidence will likely seek re-trials in the wake of “damning’’ problems at Queensland’s health forensic unit.

A report into procedures of Queensland’s state-run DNA lab has sent shockwaves. Larger, still unanswered questions, will only start to be unpicked from next week.

Inquiry finds state’s forensic crime lab has routinely failed to test samples under a certain threshold since 2018

The state announced a commission of inquiry earlier this year after police began reviewing sexual assault cases back to 2018 where there was deemed to be not enough DNA for processing.