Jury in Prominent Down Under Homicide Case Tours Beach At Which Victim Was Discovered
Jurors involved in a widely publicized Queensland murder trial have traveled to the remote beach where the young woman was discovered.
Toyah Cordingley was repeatedly attacked with a sharp object and placed in a shallow grave with little or no hope of surviving, the jury has heard.
Her body were found by her father the following day on Wangetti Beach – a section of shoreline between the popular destinations of Cairns and Port Douglas.
Rajwinder Singh, 41, has pleaded not guilty to killing Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in northern Australia.
Court Inspection to Beach
The jury of 10 men and two women plus three alternates attended the location along with the judge and legal counsel on the start of the week local time.
In a nod to the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, the judge wore a casual top, athletic wear and sneakers rather than traditional court attire.
Both the prosecuting and defense attorneys selected casual shirts, bottoms and baseball caps.
Location Details
The jurors were guided around three-quarters of a mile north up the sand to observe where Ms Cordingley's body were discovered.
Earlier, as they arrived by bus, four red and white cones showed where the victim's car had been left.
The visit was designed to help the jurors become acquainted with key locations in the trial and no official evidence was given.
Background of the Trial
Previously, the court was informed that the day after Ms Cordingley's remains were found, the accused flew from Australia to India – leaving behind his wife, family and parents.
He was out of contact until he was arrested years after, the state said.
Prosecution Case
It is claimed that Mr Singh, who was employed in healthcare in the community of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley.
The pharmacy worker was found wearing a swimwear, with her attire and belongings absent.
Those objects were taken by the assailant to avoid detection, the prosecution allege.
Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a walk, was found tied up to a tree concealed in shrubland about 100 feet from the burial site.
The weapon was ever recovered, and no eyewitnesses have been identified.
But the state says the evidence – though circumstantial – was made up of findings that pointed to Mr Singh "and eliminated others."
This will include evidence that genetic material obtained from a stick at the location was 3.8 billion times more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the public.
The jury has previously been told testimony indicating that Ms Cordingley's phone departed the beach after the killing – and that its travel matched those of a vehicle owned by the defendant.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also pointed to his guilt, the state has argued.
Defence Stance
"As the police were discovering Toyah's body, he was arranging... a rushed one way trip back to India," the prosecutor said last week as he began arguments.
The defence is has not present any evidence, but in his initial statement, Mr Singh's barrister Greg McGuire described his defendant as a "placid" and "caring" man, who was in the "incorrect location at the wrong time."
He also hinted at evidence to come subsequently that, after his arrest, Mr Singh told an undercover officer he had witnessed assailants attack Ms Cordingley and then had fled in terror – something he said was his "biggest mistake."
The defense attorney has also said he will give evidence about other people "identified and unidentified" who should come under suspicion.
Further Evidence
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom police quickly ruled out as a possible suspect, was one who gave evidence last week.
The trial heard he was an immediate person of interest – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was implicated in his girlfriend's disappearance, prior to her remains were discovered.
Images depicting the witness on a walk with a companion on the day Ms Cordingley disappeared have been presented to the jury, with an expert saying he was confident the pictures were genuine and had not been doctored in any way.
The trial will return to the more conventional setting of the courtroom on Tuesday.