Thousands of offenders may have got away with their crimes after a testing bungle in the state’s forensic lab but reopening cases may not lead to more convictions.

A bombshell inquiry has found Queensland’s high threshold for DNA testing saw forensics ignore DNA samples where “either a full or partial” profile could have been found.

The state required double the number of cells in a sample than NSW allowed between February 2018 and June 2022.

It could mean up to 9000 samples will need to be re-examined, opening up the possibility of some offenders finally being convicted for their crimes.

But Julie Sarkozi, the Practice Director for Law Reform and Education at Women’s Legal Service Queensland says it may not change the outcome of many cases.

“Being involved in criminal proceedings on top of being traumatised in such a violent and vicious way is actually incredibly traumatic,” she told Spencer Howson.

“Most of the time, people actually out of survival instinct, do need to put these things to rest.

“So to be told years later, ‘Well, now we want to reinvestigate and relitigate’ can sometimes be traumatic and that might be hard to understand.”

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