It was the site of “serious” failures that sent shock waves through the criminal justice system, and now the director of Forensic Science Queensland is asking for a new $450 million facility.
Linzi Wilson-Wilde has submitted a business case to the state government for a new building which she says could be constructed on the existing precinct at Coopers Plains on Brisbane’s south side.
Two commissions of inquiry, in 2022 and 2023, found serious failings over many years at the Forensic Science Queensland (FSQ) lab, including a “fatally flawed” automated testing method that might have seen offenders escaping conviction.
In the wake of those inquiries, FSQ received $200 million from the state government.
“Science moves forward, testing becomes more sensitive, and so it’s really important to continually invest in forensic services,” Dr Wilson-Wilde says.
Dr Wilson-Wilde joined FSQ as interim CEO in January 2023, before being named as the new director last week.
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After her appointment, Dr Wilson-Wilde took ABC News on a rare tour inside the facilities, some of which date back to the 1980s.
Through a rabbit warren of long corridors, office spaces and tightly controlled laboratories, we see where evidence is delivered and then taken for processing.
In the chemistry lab, one scientist spreads out about a million dollars worth of illicit drugs, including bricks of heroin.
Another scientist crushes up meth crystals in a mortar and pestle.
Methamphetamine is among the drugs tested at the lab. (ABC News: Stephen Cavenagh)
At the end of the day, the substances will be secured under lock and key in a room with bars and a heavy metal door.
But it is the biology labs that recover and process DNA from the scenes of major crimes such as murders and rapes that have come under intense scrutiny.
Eight thousand cases awaiting testing
More than 120 recommendations were made during the commissions of inquiry to address “disturbing and troubling” issues which have meant tens of thousands of samples may need retesting.
At the lab, that list of recommendations has been printed out and stuck up on the windows, each one marked off as it is completed.
Dr Wilson-Wilde says 67 are done.
“It’s a journey. It is not a sprint,” she says. “It will not be done in a month or two. This is going to take a number of years.”
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The retesting process is also expected to take years — more than 40,000 cases from as far back as 2007 are impacted.
Teams of police and prosecutors are combing through their records to see whether those cases would benefit from further DNA tests.
If so, they will be passed on to forensic scientists.
Dr Wilson-Wilde says “a few hundred” historical cases have been through that process and the FSQ has received 18.
Parts of the lab are sectioned off for specific testing, like this room where forensic biologists are processing DNA samples. (ABC News: Stephen Cavenagh)
As of August, nearly 8,000 current-day major crime cases were awaiting DNA testing, though that was 3,500 fewer than six months ago.
Dr Wilson-Wilde says outsourcing some work to labs interstate and overseas, along with the recruitment of new forensic scientists, will help reduce the backlog.
“Last year we engaged in an international recruitment campaign to attract international scientists,” she says.
“We have two scientists that have already commenced and six due to commence in October.”
The lab tests DNA samples as well as illicit drugs. (ABC News: Stephen Cavenagh)
Shutdown ‘not feasible’
Earlier this year, the state opposition called for the lab to be temporarily shut down to give it time to work through the retesting and other inquiry recommendations.
Dr Wilson-Wilde says that is not feasible.
“There’s not a laboratory waiting overseas somewhere to get 25,000 samples per year, which is about what we put through this laboratory,” she says.
“There’s no lab in the world that can just absorb that throughput.”
A forensic biologist works with crime scene evidence and DNA samples in the lab. (ABC News: Stephen Cavenagh)
Dr Wilson-Wilde is still waiting to hear whether her $450 million bid for a new facility will be granted, but she insists the lab is already emerging from a “crisis” and changing.
“It’s not an insurmountable job,” she says.
“The scientists here are dedicated. They are hard-working.
“This is an achievable task to turn this lab around.
“I’m confident the work we’re putting out now is of the highest quality.”
Queensland’s forensic testing lab helps evidence used in court cases. (ABC News: Stephen Cavenagh)
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