Will anyone face criminal charges for the disaster at the laboratory?

We examine more of Walter Sofronoff’s findings about how this catastrophe unfolded, delve deeper into Cathie Allen’s conduct, and meet a lady who -- when the laboratory couldn’t make sense of DNA results -- was told her own son must have been switched at birth.

The Queensland Government moves swiftly to respond to the report, and we cast forward to the laboratory’s future. 

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At last, Commissioner Walter Sofronoff hands down his 500-plus-page report -- and it is a sweeping denunciation of the laboratory’s failings, and of the conduct of one person in particular: Cathie Allen. He finds the managing scientist lied: to police, to her staff, to ministers and to the Commissioner himself, under oath during the inquiry.

Sofronoff exposes a litany of deceit and trickery, compounded by ineptitude and weakness -- but he heralds the bravery of those who stood up, hailing the courage of Dr Kirsty Wright.

We hear reactions from Dr Wright and Vicki Blackburn - and we learn some news about John Peros. 

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It’s the final week of public hearings in the explosive inquiry into a broken DNA lab and we’re all here because of one person -- Shandee Blackburn. The vicious and unprovoked murder of the defenceless 23-year-old walking home from work is front-and-centre as three independent experts give their verdict on the lab’s failure to find any forensic trace of her killer.

It’s been a long and, at times, lonely road for Australia’s Dr Kirsty Wright, but now she gets her day in court alongside the world’s most renowned forensic biologist, Dr Bruce Budowle, and New Zealand’s Johanna Veth, revealing shocking new findings.

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In the harsh spotlight of the inquiry, lab boss Cathie Allen admits to absolutely nothing, tearfully insisting she always acted with the best intentions and has been terribly misunderstood.

In her account, white-anting staff were to blame for the toxic culture at the lab, management offered no support, funding was shrinking and the pressure was relentless. We explore her life outside the lab, with some surprising revelations, and examine her claim to have been unfairly portrayed as a ‘Disney villain’.

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The big guns from the DNA lab - Lara Keller, Justin Howes and Cathie Allen - are rolled into the formal inquiry and subjected to withering questioning by a lawyer on top of his game over alleged cover-up, lies to police, and scientific fraud. The three insist they've been honest at all times, just guilty of misunderstanding the details or being overwhelmed by work and led into human error. The inquiry's lead lawyer Michael Hodge was relentless as he applied a blowtorch to a very broken lab affecting thousands of victims of crime.

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Four weeks in, one question lingers in the Walter Sofronoff-led Commission of Inquiry into Queensland's state-run forensics lab: who knew what and when?

In this week's episode, Hedley Thomas, Claire Harvey, Matthew Condon, and David Murray further unpack the toxic treatment of scientists who attempted to raise the alarm about inadequate DNA profiling processes and questionable management practices. We look closely at the behaviour of figures who've loomed large but have yet to enter the witness box: Lara Keller, Cathie Allen, and Justin Howes. 

Matt Condon also delves into the fascinating history of the facility and the unique way death is dealt with in Queensland. 

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Humiliated. Belittled. Embarrassed. Toxic behaviour by the lab's managers leads to an epic spray from a reporting scientist in this week's episode. Ingrid Moeller used her time in the witness box to unleash on less-than-stellar management of the state-run lab at the centre of the Commission of Inquiry. 

Plus, we hear from her colleagues, who tried time and again to raise the alarm about toxic culture and controversial lab practices. 

We also grapple with the magnitude of the lab's extraordinary backflips on statements provided to Queensland Police, with potentially thousands of cases thrown into doubt as a result.

Join The Australian’s National Chief Correspondent, Hedley Thomas, and his colleagues Claire Harvey, David Murray, and Matthew Condon, as they discuss the third week of the Sofronoff inquiry.

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We reveal deep concerns that the lab managers put a new, untried and ill-conceived testing system in place immediately after the public inquiry was called. Was it a deliberate strategy of sabotage to try to cover up the mistakes of the past? Or merely accidental - the product of poor judgment?

The inquiry is focusing long and hard on this as Dr Kirsty Wright helps identify the errors and potential destruction of evidence. The toxic culture inside the lab are on display along with three of the fascinating legal characters in the inquiry.

Join The Australian’s chief national correspondent, Hedley Thomas, and his colleagues Claire Harvey, David Murray and Matthew Condon, as they discuss the second week of the Sofronoff inquiry.

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Following the shocking revelations of bungling, secrecy and misconduct within Queensland’s DNA lab exposed in journalist Hedley Thomas’ podcast Shandee’s Story, a major royal commission-style inquiry into the fiasco gets underway in a Brisbane court, headed by retired judge Walter Sofronoff KC. The hearings are immediately rocked by allegations of disharmony and distrust amongst laboratory staff, sound scientific advice being ignored by senior bureaucrats, and warnings that the lab’s prohibitively high DNA testing thresholds were unsafe also being dismissed.

Senior police take the stand at the inquiry, saying they went along with the DNA lab’s new testing model because they trusted Queensland Health experts, only to become suspicious, then alarmed – courtesy of DNA expert Kirsty Wright’s damning assessment of the lab’s failings in Shandee’s Story – that offenders may have literally gotten away with murder for years. But DNA lab staff say the police signed off on the controversial testing decision and fully understood its implications. By the end of the inquiry’s first week it’s already clear that Queensland is in the midst of the greatest health and criminal justice crisis in its history.

Join The Australian’s chief national correspondent, Hedley Thomas, and his colleagues Claire Harvey, David Murray and Matthew Condon, in a comprehensive analysis of the opening week of the Sofronoff inquiry.

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Hedley Thomas, Claire Harvey, David Murray, and Matthew Condon return to cover hearings in a major public inquiry into Queensland's state-run DNA lab. 

A new episode will be published at the end of every week, for the duration of the inquiry.

Search for Shandee's Story in your podcast app, and press follow or subscribe to be notified when new episodes are released. You can read The Australian's ongoing coverage of the inquiry at theaustralian.com.au. 

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