WEBVTT - Why rapists and murderers should be sweating 

0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:08.360
<v Speaker 1>From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.

0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:15.440
<v Speaker 1>It's Monday, June fifteenth, twenty twenty six. Labour's big scheme

0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:19.840
<v Speaker 1>to grow green power has delivered just one operational renewable

0:00:19.960 --> 0:00:23.960
<v Speaker 1>energy project, a small solar farm in Victoria, producing forty

0:00:23.960 --> 0:00:28.360
<v Speaker 1>six megawatts of power, despite ninety four projects being announced

0:00:28.400 --> 0:00:32.560
<v Speaker 1>and funded. That story is live now at the Australian

0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:37.680
<v Speaker 1>dot com dot a U. A man who was acquitted

0:00:37.760 --> 0:00:41.560
<v Speaker 1>for rape is facing another trial as prosecutors seek leave

0:00:41.640 --> 0:00:45.360
<v Speaker 1>to invoke Queensland's new double jeopardy laws. In a huge

0:00:45.400 --> 0:00:49.520
<v Speaker 1>development arising from The Australian's podcast Shandy story, it could

0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:52.840
<v Speaker 1>be followed by one hundreds or thousands more cases where

0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:57.760
<v Speaker 1>DNA evidence can now be used to prove previously unsolved crimes.

0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:02.120
<v Speaker 1>National Chief Correspondent Headly Thomas is here in just a moment.

0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:12.280
<v Speaker 2>If you know that you're a guilty person, you should

0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:15.600
<v Speaker 2>be very concerned. We're talking real tip of the iceberg

0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:16.120
<v Speaker 2>stuff here.

0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.880
<v Speaker 1>This is Headley Thomas, the Australian's National Chief correspondent and

0:01:22.920 --> 0:01:27.800
<v Speaker 1>one of the world's foremost investigative podcasters. In twenty twenty

0:01:27.800 --> 0:01:32.200
<v Speaker 1>one and twenty twenty two, Headley's podcast Shandy Story revealed

0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:36.040
<v Speaker 1>shocking failures in our justice system. A twenty three year

0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:39.840
<v Speaker 1>old Queensland woman named Shandy Blackburn had been stabbed to

0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:43.320
<v Speaker 1>death just meters from her home late at night while

0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:47.279
<v Speaker 1>walking home from work. Nobody was convicted for the crime,

0:01:47.440 --> 0:01:50.680
<v Speaker 1>and part of the reason is that although police carefully

0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:54.320
<v Speaker 1>gathered forends examples including a pool of blood from a

0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.960
<v Speaker 1>gutter at the scene, tape lifts from Shandy's arm, and

0:01:58.080 --> 0:02:02.640
<v Speaker 1>from a suspect's car, scientists in Queensland's DNA lab were

0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:05.520
<v Speaker 1>unable to find a positive link to a killer in

0:02:05.560 --> 0:02:10.320
<v Speaker 1>those samples. In the podcast, Hedley and his collaborator, forensic

0:02:10.360 --> 0:02:15.240
<v Speaker 1>scientist Kirsty Wright, blew open a massive story. The DNA

0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:19.480
<v Speaker 1>failure wasn't just in Shandy's case. Abject failings at the

0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:24.560
<v Speaker 1>lab processing all major crimes in Queensland meant potentially hundreds,

0:02:24.680 --> 0:02:28.360
<v Speaker 1>even thousands of murderers and rapists had got away with

0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:32.519
<v Speaker 1>their crimes. Now that's changing. The lab has been through

0:02:32.600 --> 0:02:36.639
<v Speaker 1>a huge overhaul and samples in old crimes have been

0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:40.600
<v Speaker 1>retested to try and positively identify perpetrators.

0:02:44.280 --> 0:02:49.240
<v Speaker 2>Double jeopardy is the rule whereby once you've been charged

0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:53.000
<v Speaker 2>and then acquitted of an offense, you can't be represented

0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:55.840
<v Speaker 2>with that same offense, and that is a long standing

0:02:56.200 --> 0:03:00.600
<v Speaker 2>rule that multiple jurisdictions are buying by. However, in Queensland,

0:03:00.639 --> 0:03:04.720
<v Speaker 2>because of the DNA disaster that we experienced here that

0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:08.720
<v Speaker 2>was exposed during the Shandy Story podcast that I did

0:03:08.800 --> 0:03:14.200
<v Speaker 2>with doctor Kirsty Wright, the most amazing forensic biologist, we

0:03:14.320 --> 0:03:18.240
<v Speaker 2>have a situation where there are many hundreds, if not thousands,

0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:23.400
<v Speaker 2>of cases where victims of crime have been possibly denied

0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:28.400
<v Speaker 2>justice because the DNA, the incriminating DNA of alleged defenders,

0:03:29.040 --> 0:03:32.760
<v Speaker 2>wasn't detected during the original testing. Now, with all of

0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:39.000
<v Speaker 2>those cases being retested, those results are starting to show

0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.560
<v Speaker 2>great promise and causing prosecutors and police to work out

0:03:44.000 --> 0:03:47.800
<v Speaker 2>which ones can be taken before the courts. But because

0:03:47.840 --> 0:03:51.720
<v Speaker 2>in some of these cases the offenders have already been acquitted,

0:03:52.560 --> 0:03:57.520
<v Speaker 2>probably in part because there was no DNA detected according

0:03:57.560 --> 0:03:59.920
<v Speaker 2>to the lab at the time, when we know that

0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.320
<v Speaker 2>always was DNA, they just weren't looking competently for it.

0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:07.839
<v Speaker 2>There is a double jeopardy issue. And to get over

0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:12.360
<v Speaker 2>that double jeopardy issue, the DPP Todd Fuller needs to

0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:16.279
<v Speaker 2>go to the Court of Appeal and argue that there

0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:20.920
<v Speaker 2>is fresh and compelling evidence in these cases. And we

0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:25.479
<v Speaker 2>have now the first one since the DNA results have

0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:29.919
<v Speaker 2>been retested, that's ready for legal challenge. And it's a

0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:33.320
<v Speaker 2>case of a woman who was raped. The case was

0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:38.839
<v Speaker 2>heard in Townsville. The alleged defender was acquitted in twenty

0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:43.239
<v Speaker 2>twenty two, four years ago. So it's interesting the timing

0:04:43.320 --> 0:04:48.440
<v Speaker 2>that case must have been unfolding during the podcast series

0:04:48.480 --> 0:04:52.159
<v Speaker 2>in twenty twenty two, when the episode is revealing so

0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:55.360
<v Speaker 2>much of what was going wrong in the Queensland government

0:04:55.480 --> 0:05:00.000
<v Speaker 2>run DNA lab was being revealed. The offender was acquitted,

0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.200
<v Speaker 2>as I say, and that was the end of it

0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:08.840
<v Speaker 2>until the retesting now has shown that potentially incriminating DNA

0:05:09.279 --> 0:05:11.839
<v Speaker 2>was there all the time, and that will be used

0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:14.640
<v Speaker 2>as the argument for the fresh and compelling evidence to

0:05:14.680 --> 0:05:20.160
<v Speaker 2>satisfy a legal test about the DNA and why the

0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:24.960
<v Speaker 2>case and the same charge should be re prosecuted, notwithstanding

0:05:25.000 --> 0:05:30.000
<v Speaker 2>the original finding that the accused was acquitted.

0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:33.360
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, that rule about double jeopardy is one of the

0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:36.479
<v Speaker 1>ancient principles of our legal system and it's designed to

0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:42.080
<v Speaker 1>stop prosecuting authorities from harassing accused people. Various jurisdictions have

0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.599
<v Speaker 1>amended those laws over the past few decades. New South

0:05:45.600 --> 0:05:48.400
<v Speaker 1>Wales did it in two thousand and six to include

0:05:48.400 --> 0:05:52.200
<v Speaker 1>this new principle of fresh and compelling evidence. In Queensland,

0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:55.599
<v Speaker 1>I believe it already existed in very limited cases of murder,

0:05:55.640 --> 0:05:57.920
<v Speaker 1>that the prosecutor could have another goal if fresh and

0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:02.520
<v Speaker 1>compelling evidence arose. Deb Frecklington, the Attorney General, reformed the

0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:06.000
<v Speaker 1>law in response to your investigative work heavily.

0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:11.560
<v Speaker 3>Queensland's DNA inquiries shook the foundations of the justice system,

0:06:12.000 --> 0:06:15.280
<v Speaker 3>uncovering failings and triggering a review of up to one

0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:19.480
<v Speaker 3>hundred and three thousand samples. Now the government is proposing

0:06:19.560 --> 0:06:23.160
<v Speaker 3>law changes in case new DNA evidence comes to light.

0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.960
<v Speaker 1>What does it mean now? If you are someone who

0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:30.919
<v Speaker 1>has been acquitted of a sexual crime or a crime

0:06:30.920 --> 0:06:34.799
<v Speaker 1>of violence in Queensland, what should you be thinking about

0:06:34.800 --> 0:06:36.760
<v Speaker 1>the prospect that your case might come up again.

0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:41.599
<v Speaker 2>Well, if you know that you're a guilty person and

0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:47.320
<v Speaker 2>that DNA evidence didn't harm your case, in fact may

0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:51.479
<v Speaker 2>have helped you because the forensic lab was unable to

0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:55.040
<v Speaker 2>make a link between you and a victim of crime.

0:06:56.160 --> 0:06:59.800
<v Speaker 2>And now you're in this situation where you're aware, because

0:06:59.839 --> 0:07:03.200
<v Speaker 2>it's a matter of public record that thousands of samples

0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:08.159
<v Speaker 2>are being retested. You should be very concerned. And I

0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:12.920
<v Speaker 2>hope and I know that police and Deb Frecklington and

0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:15.840
<v Speaker 2>the lab scientists who are working really hard on these

0:07:15.880 --> 0:07:20.160
<v Speaker 2>samples are going to queue up many, many more of

0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:23.240
<v Speaker 2>these cases. This is just the first one. We're talking

0:07:23.320 --> 0:07:26.280
<v Speaker 2>real tip of the iceberg stuff here. There could be

0:07:26.800 --> 0:07:33.120
<v Speaker 2>hundreds of cases amongst those that have either failed to

0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:38.480
<v Speaker 2>lead to conviction after being prosecuted or not even being

0:07:38.720 --> 0:07:41.960
<v Speaker 2>run as cases because the police were not able to

0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:46.520
<v Speaker 2>satisfy prosecutors that there was sufficient evidence to meet the

0:07:46.600 --> 0:07:51.400
<v Speaker 2>test for a prosecution. There could be so many of

0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:56.000
<v Speaker 2>these cases in fact, where confident there are that the

0:07:56.080 --> 0:07:59.520
<v Speaker 2>course will be hearing these cases that just fell through

0:07:59.560 --> 0:08:04.080
<v Speaker 2>the crack that denied victims justice for many years. What

0:08:04.160 --> 0:08:07.440
<v Speaker 2>we're talking about, in the words of doctor Kirsey Wright,

0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:12.640
<v Speaker 2>is probably the greatest forensic lab disaster in relation to

0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:15.800
<v Speaker 2>DNA in the world, certainly in Australia by a very

0:08:15.880 --> 0:08:19.960
<v Speaker 2>very large margin, but it would be difficult to find

0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:25.960
<v Speaker 2>globally a worst case of justice denied for victims of crime,

0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:30.960
<v Speaker 2>going back some twenty years, not just a few years,

0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.360
<v Speaker 2>not just at the time poor Shandy Blackburn was murdered

0:08:34.720 --> 0:08:38.480
<v Speaker 2>in twenty thirteen in Mackay, going back all the way

0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:40.640
<v Speaker 2>to the early two thousands.

0:08:41.840 --> 0:08:44.800
<v Speaker 1>Yeah, it seemed from what Kirsty Wright and you discovered

0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:47.320
<v Speaker 1>in your work on the podcast that there had been

0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.080
<v Speaker 1>numerous failings in that DNA lab the introduction of new

0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:55.840
<v Speaker 1>equipment that wasn't properly, introduced processes and systems and people

0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:59.520
<v Speaker 1>within that laboratory that weren't doing things properly. And it's

0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:01.880
<v Speaker 1>been a long road to actually get to the point

0:09:01.920 --> 0:09:04.520
<v Speaker 1>where we are seeing things change. Though headly I mean

0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:08.040
<v Speaker 1>that the laboratory has been through several rounds of attempted

0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.760
<v Speaker 1>reform since then that kind of haven't stuck. Do you

0:09:11.840 --> 0:09:14.800
<v Speaker 1>have faith now that the laboratory is doing what it's

0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:18.240
<v Speaker 1>supposed to be doing in crimes that are being committed now?

0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:23.160
<v Speaker 2>Well, it certainly appears to be heading in the right direction, Claire.

0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:25.960
<v Speaker 2>They have been able to get through what looked like

0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:31.720
<v Speaker 2>an insurmountable mountain a backlog of cases, and they did

0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:36.200
<v Speaker 2>that by sending thousands of cases to the United States

0:09:36.640 --> 0:09:41.240
<v Speaker 2>for testing in a lab in Washington, DC. Now that's

0:09:41.280 --> 0:09:45.160
<v Speaker 2>a big call. Under the leadership of Meg Fuller, who

0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:48.360
<v Speaker 2>was the former New South Wales Police commissioner, you know,

0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:51.920
<v Speaker 2>a number of scientists have been forced to leave the

0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.840
<v Speaker 2>lab and a number of scientists who are seen as

0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:58.200
<v Speaker 2>the future of the lab have been hired.

0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.280
<v Speaker 1>Mick Fuller spoke with Headley in twenty twenty five about

0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:04.960
<v Speaker 1>his new role at the lab.

0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.600
<v Speaker 4>Taking risks is part of being the boss. I mean

0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:13.200
<v Speaker 4>they should be calculated risks, they should be well brought out.

0:10:13.640 --> 0:10:16.640
<v Speaker 4>I think in life there are gambles in the terms

0:10:16.679 --> 0:10:19.360
<v Speaker 4>of the risks that you do take, but I felt

0:10:19.400 --> 0:10:21.440
<v Speaker 4>in this case it was a worthwhile one.

0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:28.400
<v Speaker 2>Deb Reckington has a powerful and i'm sure very sincere

0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:33.280
<v Speaker 2>commitment to ensuring that the mistakes of the former government

0:10:33.600 --> 0:10:35.120
<v Speaker 2>aren't repeated under her watch.

0:10:36.000 --> 0:10:39.760
<v Speaker 5>My office has a keen view over what is happening

0:10:39.840 --> 0:10:43.680
<v Speaker 5>at our lab. I will not be an Attorney General

0:10:44.160 --> 0:10:46.520
<v Speaker 5>who says I can't put a press release out. I've

0:10:46.520 --> 0:10:48.800
<v Speaker 5>done a stand up, answered some questions and then forget

0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:50.679
<v Speaker 5>about it. More from your hands.

0:10:52.000 --> 0:10:56.000
<v Speaker 2>So there's a lot going on. The police are deeply committed.

0:10:56.480 --> 0:11:01.559
<v Speaker 2>Now that'll be no doubt looking back through their case

0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:06.440
<v Speaker 2>files triaging matters, and the DPP will be doing the

0:11:06.440 --> 0:11:10.040
<v Speaker 2>same looking at the cases that were not leading to

0:11:10.120 --> 0:11:13.760
<v Speaker 2>convictions that they believe should have where a swing factor

0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:18.600
<v Speaker 2>was forensic evidence. And we need to wait to see

0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:24.720
<v Speaker 2>how this application proceeds. Defense lawyers will want to pick

0:11:24.760 --> 0:11:28.560
<v Speaker 2>apart these applications, possibly test them all the way to

0:11:28.640 --> 0:11:33.440
<v Speaker 2>the High Court because this is a potential disaster for hundreds,

0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:39.520
<v Speaker 2>hundreds and hundreds of potential future defendants, and I can

0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:43.680
<v Speaker 2>see it being contested. But if the law and the

0:11:43.800 --> 0:11:47.679
<v Speaker 2>changes that have been introduced by Deb Brecklington to ensure

0:11:48.080 --> 0:11:54.200
<v Speaker 2>that the incompetence the malfeasance of scientists in the former

0:11:54.320 --> 0:12:01.200
<v Speaker 2>lab is not a barrier to the notion that the

0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:05.199
<v Speaker 2>DNA that is now being recovered is fresh and compelling,

0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:09.800
<v Speaker 2>then these matters should proceed and will be seeing a

0:12:09.840 --> 0:12:13.880
<v Speaker 2>lot more action over coming months and years in the

0:12:13.920 --> 0:12:15.400
<v Speaker 2>Supreme Court and the District Court.

0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:20.360
<v Speaker 1>We often see very loud public campaigns for people to

0:12:20.400 --> 0:12:22.640
<v Speaker 1>be freed from jail when there's a feeling that there's

0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:24.679
<v Speaker 1>been a miscarriage of justice of some kind that have been

0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:27.960
<v Speaker 1>celebrated cases in Australia, where people who have been convicted

0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:31.800
<v Speaker 1>of offenses are subsequently freed. However, many people who make

0:12:32.000 --> 0:12:36.160
<v Speaker 1>an accusation about sexual assault leave that experience feeling as

0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:39.160
<v Speaker 1>though the accused has more rights than they do, that

0:12:39.240 --> 0:12:42.000
<v Speaker 1>they are looked after better by the criminal justice system

0:12:42.080 --> 0:12:44.720
<v Speaker 1>than the victim. Is what's your sense heavily of that

0:12:44.800 --> 0:12:46.719
<v Speaker 1>balance in these matters.

0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:49.480
<v Speaker 2>Well, I think that the balance is hopefully going to

0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:53.120
<v Speaker 2>be more evenly weighted so that the victims of crime

0:12:53.679 --> 0:12:59.360
<v Speaker 2>have a fighting chance, and that the accused persons who

0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:04.480
<v Speaker 2>have been able to literally get away with very serious

0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:09.000
<v Speaker 2>cases from murder down, they're going to have a big shock.

0:13:09.480 --> 0:13:14.720
<v Speaker 2>They're going to be arrested and charged again, and they'll

0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:18.320
<v Speaker 2>bleed and whine about how perhaps they've already been through

0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:21.160
<v Speaker 2>this process they were already acquitted. Well, yeah, too bad.

0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:26.800
<v Speaker 2>You were acquitted because there was an abject failure in

0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:31.880
<v Speaker 2>a forensic laboratory that the police and the victims of

0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:35.440
<v Speaker 2>crime couldn't have known about it at the time. It

0:13:35.640 --> 0:13:42.080
<v Speaker 2>took an extraordinary forensic biologist in Kirsty Right. It took

0:13:42.840 --> 0:13:46.840
<v Speaker 2>her pouring over hundreds of documents that I had been

0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:51.640
<v Speaker 2>able to collect for the Shandy story investigation, and then

0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:56.960
<v Speaker 2>Kirsty to identify the most fundamental failures in that lab

0:13:57.480 --> 0:14:03.880
<v Speaker 2>which led to them knowingly, it seems, compromising the quality

0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:09.199
<v Speaker 2>and the control of testing, so changing parameters that led

0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:15.320
<v Speaker 2>to the failure of DNA to be detected, and somehow

0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:19.760
<v Speaker 2>weirdly being prepared to claim that they were performing better

0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.440
<v Speaker 2>because they were getting through more samples, even though they

0:14:23.480 --> 0:14:27.520
<v Speaker 2>were achieving what they were designed really tasked with doing,

0:14:27.600 --> 0:14:29.560
<v Speaker 2>which was fine the evidence hellly.

0:14:29.640 --> 0:14:33.760
<v Speaker 1>Just finally, a man was charged with murdering Shandy, John Perros,

0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:37.320
<v Speaker 1>who always denied any wrongdoing. He was acquitted. A coroner

0:14:37.360 --> 0:14:40.800
<v Speaker 1>subsequently found that he was responsible for Shandy's murder. Again,

0:14:40.840 --> 0:14:43.960
<v Speaker 1>he's always denied that. He's suing the Australian for defamation

0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:47.640
<v Speaker 1>in a matter that we are very strongly defending. Is

0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:50.320
<v Speaker 1>there any hope do you think that in Shandy's own case,

0:14:50.360 --> 0:14:53.960
<v Speaker 1>which of course triggered this whole thing, there might be

0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:56.920
<v Speaker 1>fresh charges laid or a killer might be caught.

0:14:58.360 --> 0:15:02.600
<v Speaker 2>There's always hope, Claire, and I wish I had a

0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.200
<v Speaker 2>bird's eye view of what's going on in that case.

0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:12.880
<v Speaker 2>The Central Coroner for Queensland has reopened his inquest as

0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:16.480
<v Speaker 2>a result of the disclosures in the Shandy Story podcast

0:15:16.520 --> 0:15:21.400
<v Speaker 2>and the subsequent commissions of inquiry which found so much

0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:25.800
<v Speaker 2>more that was wrong in the forensic lab. There is

0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:31.600
<v Speaker 2>undoubtedly a lot of very sophisticated work that is ongoing

0:15:32.000 --> 0:15:36.000
<v Speaker 2>and still to be done to try to determine whether

0:15:36.200 --> 0:15:41.080
<v Speaker 2>an offender can be identified in Shandy's case. It may

0:15:41.160 --> 0:15:47.240
<v Speaker 2>be though that case will never be fully or properly

0:15:47.320 --> 0:15:52.880
<v Speaker 2>solved to the satisfaction of Shandy's mum, Vicki, and Shandy's

0:15:52.920 --> 0:15:58.760
<v Speaker 2>sister Shunner, and her other family and friends. But Shandy's

0:15:58.840 --> 0:16:01.240
<v Speaker 2>legacy is what's happening now.

0:16:02.720 --> 0:16:04.720
<v Speaker 1>Here's Shandy's mom, Vicki Blackburn.

0:16:05.600 --> 0:16:10.240
<v Speaker 6>We've advocated for these changes for a while now, and

0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.720
<v Speaker 6>honestly I was which if we were ever going to

0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:17.520
<v Speaker 6>see them come to fruition, but very very pleased and

0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:20.440
<v Speaker 6>to see that this has happened today. It's going to

0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.680
<v Speaker 6>be life changing for so many of those victims.

0:16:24.280 --> 0:16:28.080
<v Speaker 2>We wouldn't be in this place with the double jeopardy

0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:33.080
<v Speaker 2>cases being now going through the courts, and other victims

0:16:33.080 --> 0:16:37.120
<v Speaker 2>of crime who never knew Shandy potentially having another chance

0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:39.080
<v Speaker 2>at their justice.

0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.080
<v Speaker 1>It's quite remarkable. Thank you very much.

0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:44.320
<v Speaker 2>Thank you.

0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:50.880
<v Speaker 1>Claire Headley Thomas is The Australian's national Chief correspondent. You

0:16:50.880 --> 0:16:53.640
<v Speaker 1>can listen to Shandy's story right now wherever you're hearing

0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:56.400
<v Speaker 1>this episode of the Front and read all the best

0:16:56.480 --> 0:17:00.280
<v Speaker 1>in news, sports, business and politics at the Australian dot

0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:01.160
<v Speaker 1>com dot at you