The 1974 murder of ‘Shotgun Johnny’ Regan has never been solved. Now, his family wants answers. That’s where The Australian’s new cold case investigation The Gangster’s Ghost comes in. Subscribers can listen to Episodes 1 and 2 now at gangstersghost.com.au. This episode of The Australian's daily news podcast The Front is presented by Claire Harvey, produced by Kristen Amiet and edited by Tiffany Dimmack. Our team includes Lia Tsamoglou, Joshua Burton, Stephanie Coombes and Jasper Leak, who also ...
May 08, 2025•14 min
In this episode of our daily news podcast, a QLD Supreme Court judge dismisses the defamation action brought against The Australian by the man acquitted of killing Shandee Blackburn. Find out more about The Front podcast here . You can read about this story and more on The Australian's website or on The Australian’s app. This episode of The Front is presented by Claire Harvey, produced by Kristen Amiet and edited by Tiffany Dimmack. The multimedia editor is Lia Tsamoglou and original music is co...
Aug 27, 2024•20 min
A defamation case sparked by the Shandee’s Story podcast poses the question: can journalists publish evidence that calls a court finding into doubt? Find out more about The Front podcast here . You can read about this story and more on The Australian's website or on The Australian’s app. This episode of The Front is presented by Claire Harvey, produced by Stephanie Coombes and edited by Joshua Burton. Our team also includes Lia Tsamoglou, Jasper Leak, Kristen Amiet and Tiffany Dimmack. See omnys...
Jul 31, 2024•17 min
From our daily news podcast The Front, John Peros' defamation action against Hedley Thomas, Shannah Blackburn and the publishers of The Australian. For free daily news, search 'The Front' wherever you listen, and subscribe to ensure you never miss an episode. This episode is presented by Claire Harvey, produced by Stephanie Coombes and edited by Jasper Leak. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jul 30, 2024•16 min
There was no fanfare when Commissioner Annabelle Bennett SC handed down her findings from the Project 13 inquiry. Only disappointment that the inquiry failed to hold anyone responsible for the biggest disaster in the lab’s history. In this episode of Shandee’s Legacy, Dr Kirsty Wright joins Hedley Thomas, Claire Harvey, and David Murray to dissect and comment on the findings from this rare second inquiry, the future of a lab at the heart of the criminal justice system, and the case which started...
Nov 24, 2023•1 hr 18 min
Public hearings in a second inquiry into the lab and the disastrous Project 13 have concluded. Closing submissions have been delivered. And still questions are left unanswered. Why was the automated process unleashed on precious crime-scene samples? Who wrote the mysterious and damning Project 13 report? And why didn’t the lab’s new boss flag it in the first inquiry? In this episode, Hedley Thomas, David Murray, and Matthew Condon dissect a baffling week in Brisbane’s Magistrates Court – and wha...
Nov 11, 2023•1 hr 21 min
Public hearings for a rare second inquiry into catastrophic failings at Queensland’s besieged forensics lab are about to get underway in Brisbane. In this episode of Shandee’s Legacy, Hedley Thomas, David Murray, Claire Harvey, and Matthew Condon drill down into the questions yet to be answered about Project 13: who knew what and when, and why didn’t the lab’s new boss raise it at the first inquiry? We also get to know the new legal team brought in to lead the new inquiry. To read The Australian...
Oct 27, 2023•1 hr 14 min
The Queensland government will reopen an inquiry into its troubled DNA lab after new evidence of flawed automated testing processes emerged. Find out more about The Front podcast here and subscribe in your podcast app. You can read about this story and more on The Australian's website or on The Australian’s app. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
Oct 05, 2023•14 min
A cloud has been cast over the new chief of the lab following revelations that a DNA extraction method may have failed across thousands of samples in criminal cases for nine years. Professor Linzi Wilson-Wilde reviewed the automated method for retired judge Walter Sofronoff’s inquiry into the lab in 2022, but in her subsequent report did not mention information that she came across showing it was having serious problems recovering DNA. In this episode, Professor Wilson-Wilde launches a staunch d...
Sep 15, 2023•1 hr 27 min
Dr Kirsty Wright is the remarkable scientist who exposed the worst forensics disaster in Australia’s history, and now she’s identified the ‘smoking gun’ in the Queensland DNA lab disaster. It’s a catastrophe called ‘Project 13’ which has been hiding in plain view -- but Dr Wright is certain that it was deceptive and fraudulent, and it explains why Shandee’s case in 2013 and thousands of others since 2007 have failed. For dedicated followers of this series, the Project 13 report can be found on t...
Sep 08, 2023•1 hr 18 min
The Australian's global smash-hit podcast Teacher's Pet returns for Australian audiences on July 1. You can find it wherever you got this podcast. Just search for "The Teacher's Pet". See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Jun 30, 2023•35 sec
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. To read The Australian's reporting and analysis of the...
Dec 17, 2022•1 hr 56 min
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 co...
Dec 16, 2022•1 hr 27 min
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’...
Nov 25, 2022•1 hr 40 min
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 vil...
Nov 04, 2022•1 hr 45 min
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 affec...
Oct 28, 2022•1 hr 38 min
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 ...
Oct 21, 2022•1 hr 37 min
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 ba...
Oct 14, 2022•1 hr 43 min
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 fa...
Oct 07, 2022•1 hr 16 min
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 prohibitive...
Sep 30, 2022•1 hr 30 min
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 . See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy infor...
Sep 23, 2022•1 min
DNA scientist Dr Kirsty Wright is shown how public servants and DNA laboratory managers behind closed doors have been minimising the serious concerns raised in the podcast series. A raft of internal documents responding to Kirsty's revelations become available and these show the immediate refusal of the managers of the laboratory to start a proper audit or acknowledge anything has gone awry. Many documents are heavily redacted but are likely to be flushed out as the new Commission of Inquiry gat...
Jun 16, 2022•54 min
Finally, seven months after the first disclosures in episode 7 of the podcast by Dr Kirsty Wright about grave concerns over the testing of DNA in Shandee's case and in hundreds of others, a remarkable breakthrough. The Premier of Queensland announces a far-reaching public inquiry to be led by one of Queensland's most respected legal figures and he'll be armed with vast powers and a team of lawyers and investigators to get to the truth in the DNA laboratory. Vicki and Shannah Blackburn were brief...
Jun 08, 2022•1 hr 6 min
From Hedley Thomas and the journalists at The Australian comes The Teacher's Trial. A new episode will be published every Friday for the duration of the trial of Chris Dawson, who is accused of the murder of his wife Lynette Dawson. Search for The Teacher's Trial wherever you listen to podcasts, or read The Australian's ongoing coverage of the trial here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....
May 13, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Will Shandee Blackburn ever get justice? Will systemic flaws in Queensland’s forensic lab be independently investigated by the authorities? In this episode of the podcast series – which is pausing until new leads arise – Dr Kirsty Wright reveals the letter she confidentially wrote to Queensland’s corruption-fighting agency about the broken lab and her concerns that its problems are more serious than they first appeared. John and Shandee's former friend Jarrod Hau describes as untrue a claim John...
Mar 24, 2022•1 hr 19 min
Evidence that appears to have fallen through the cracks in Shandee’s case is revealed as John Peros’s flat – and its hiding places – gets a fresh examination in light of new information from a listener. Retired homicide detective Scott Furlong recalls his visit to the flat the day after the murder as part of the investigation, of seeing apparent renovation works, and then noting a year later the elaborate concealment spaces which had been created by John. The smell of paint or bleach the day aft...
Mar 17, 2022•1 hr 3 min
The footsteps of a running man captured in CCTV footage seconds before and after Shandee’s slaying are re-enacted to test a theory that the running man didn’t have enough time to be her killer. Criminal lawyer Kristy Bell explains the legal principle of double jeopardy and the evidence required to recharge an offender for the same crime under Queensland law. In 2019 the inquest hears detailed police evidence about the CCTV compilation of a suspect's vehicle. John Peros enters the witness box aft...
Mar 09, 2022•1 hr 3 min
Queensland’s government-run forensics lab has been using a testing threshold that is preventing it from detecting DNA in many samples, says Dr Kirsty Wright, with potentially catastrophic consequences for victims of violent crime. A t-shirt described as 'blood-soaked' is found at a Mackay business near the murder scene – but the lab reports “No DNA detected”. A truck driver who is sure he saw Shandee’s handbag at a Mackay rubbish dump just days after the murder says his information wasn't follow...
Mar 02, 2022•1 hr 6 min
Forensic biologist Dr Kirsty Wright says she’s found irrefutable evidence that the forensics train wreck in Shandee’s case is not a one-off incident – and reveals the shocking results that have led her to believe many victims of rape and serious sexual assault have been denied a fair shot at justice. In 2017, a recently acquitted John Peros insists on the return of his Toyota Hilux – but coroner David O’Connell seizes it under his coronial powers and scours the vehicle for clues. The vehicle and...
Feb 23, 2022•1 hr 21 min
Shandee’s family reflect on a justice system they say failed Shandee and share who they believe her real killer is – and why he escaped justice. Unheard evidence is examined. More DNA problems and omissions are discovered by Dr Kirsty Wright who is joined by another forensic scientist in expressing serious concerns about the lab. A new person of interest comes into view. Subscribers to The Australian have exclusive first access to episodes of Shandee's Story via The Australian app. Subscribe to ...
Jan 09, 2022•1 hr 22 min
