Voices for the Victims
Shandee Blackburn was brutally murdered as she walked home from work - but this cold-case can still be solved. Gold Walkley-winning journalist Hedley Thomas - who created The Teacher’s Pet and The Night Driver - goes deep to find out who killed Shandee, and why.
Episodes of the podcast first, plus exclusive stories, videos, pictures and extraordinary evidence are available with a subscription through The Australian's app, or at shandee.com.au
To contact Hedley Thomas anonymously with any info
44 most recent episodes
Visit website →It's been four years since Hedley, Dr Kirsty Wright and Vicki and Shannah Blackburn first Zoomed in late 2021 about the forensic testing anomalies in Shandee's case.
In the final episode of Shandee's Legacy for now, the podcast’s focus turns to the
The new director of the lab, former NSW Police Force Commissioner Mick Fuller, is tasked with leading the lab out of ruin and transforming it into a world-class facility.
He shares his plans for salvaging the lab with Hedley and explains why he is
The terrible toll for victims affected by the DNA lab’s ongoing failure is laid bare by Magda.
Eighteen months after her alleged rape, the mining site worker is still waiting for the lab to tell her what, if anything, is happening with the forensic
A blockbuster new podcast from The Australian and our investigative star reporter Hedley Thomas: Sick To Death is the horrifying true story of a surgeon who made catastrophic mistakes - and went unchallenged by a broken system. Hedley Thomas is here
After a break of two years, the podcast returns with the first of several new bombshell episodes of Shandee’s Legacy.
The DNA lab in Queensland is again under close scrutiny for gross scientific failure despite the findings of two public inquiries,
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.
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A defamation case sparked by the Shandee’s Story podcast poses the question: can journalists publish evidence that calls a court finding into doubt?
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From our daily news podcast The Front, John Peros' defamation action against Hedley Thomas, Shannah Blackburn and the publishers of The Australian.
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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
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?
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 d
The Queensland government will reopen an inquiry into its troubled DNA lab after new evidence of flawed automated testing processes emerged.
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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 retir
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
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 m
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 polic
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-
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 to
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 thr
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 u
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 stat
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 merel
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,
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 becom
Finally, seven months after the first disclosures by Dr Kirsty Wright in Episode 7 of the podcast 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
From Hedley Thomas and the journalists at The Australian comes The Teacher's Trial. This is the first episode.
New episodes of The Teacher's Trial are published every Friday for the duration of the trial of Chris Dawson, who is accused of the murder
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
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 recal
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 principl
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
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 sexu
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 j
The prosecutor Josh Phillips argues CCTV footage proves John is a killer and William Daniel a red herring, while Craig Eberhardt responds with a large display photo of a great white shark – and tells jurors it's the real killer, William Daniel.
Tex
John’s defence lawyer Craig Eberhardt smashes the credibility of three key Australia Day witnesses as they try to deny obvious references to illicit drug use in text messages about “lollies”. Their evidence of hearing John say hatefully that Shandee
John Peros’s murder trial begins, and John's criminal defence lawyers fight to have evidence they believe is unfair to their client excluded.
Evidence police labelled as ‘blood’ in John’s Toyota Hilux is ruled inadmissible by the trial judge because
Detectives face tough questions from John Peros’s legal team at a committal hearing prior to his murder trial. William Daniel and Levii Blackman are witnesses – and Levii denies William told him, 'I did it'.
Frustrated detectives sought answers for
John Peros is taken to a windowless room in Brisbane’s police headquarters in early September 2014. Detectives want him to see CCTV footage from the night of the murder of a car remarkably similar to his ute driving around Mackay, and vision of a run
Major forensics failures in a government-run laboratory seriously compromised the police investigation into Shandee’s murder, one of Australia’s most respected DNA experts finds. After months examining the case for Shandee’s Story, forensic biologist
An increasingly paranoid John Peros cuts ties with former friends and records his conversations – a close friend tells police that John is “losing it” under the pressure of the intensifying investigation. John is served with a forensic procedure orde
A violent self-styled gangster who carries knives, deals and uses illegal drugs, and attacks men and women in the sugar and mining town looms into serious view for homicide cops. William Daniel is a young man with a long criminal record who calls him
John Peros tells a friend he has entered “stealth mode”, purchasing a motor scooter, deleting social media and using a new phone as police obtain a warrant to search his property. Friends who socialised with John on Australia Day 2013 give police sta
Detectives forensically examining Shandee’s iPhone uncover thousands of text messages and evidence of fierce rows between John Peros and Shandee in the year before she died.
Unresolved trust issues plague John and Shandee’s toxic love as Shandee beg
Police detectives talk to Shandee’s former boyfriend, John Peros, who discloses his trust issues, their arguments, problems in the bedroom and break-up. John willingly goes to the police station to make a statement, but he declines to give a sample o
Shandee Blackburn is a popular, outgoing young woman who lives with her mother Vicki in a Queensland town renowned for its sugar, Mackay. Shandee walks home at night from her coffee shop job sometimes and she’s filmed by CCTV cameras - along with her