Jury in High-Profile Australian Homicide Case Visits Shoreline Where Deceased Was Discovered
Jurors overseeing a widely publicized Queensland murder trial have been taken to the isolated beach where the young woman was located.
Toyah Cordingley was repeatedly stabbed with a sharp object and buried in a sandy resting place with little or no hope of surviving, the court has heard.
Her body were discovered by a family member the next day on Wangetti Beach – a stretch of coastline between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.
Rajwinder Singh, 41, denies murdering Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in northern Australia.
Jury Inspection to Crime Scene
The jury of 12 individuals plus several back-up jurors visited the beach along with the judge and legal counsel on the start of the week local time.
In a acknowledgment of the hot climate and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a casual top, athletic wear and trainers rather than a wig and robes.
Both the lead prosecution and defense attorneys selected casual shirts, bottoms and baseball caps.
Scene Details
The jurors were guided around 1.2km north up the sand to observe where Ms Cordingley's remains were uncovered.
Earlier, as they arrived by bus, several markers indicated where the vehicle had been parked.
The visit was intended to help the jurors become acquainted with key locations in the case and no official evidence was given.
Background of the Case
Last week, the court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered, Mr Singh flew from Australia to India – abandoning his wife, three children and parents.
He was out of contact until he was apprehended four years later, the state said.
State Case
It is claimed that Mr Singh, who was working as a nurse in the community of Innisfail, near Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.
The victim was found wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions absent.
Those items were taken by the assailant to conceal evidence, the prosecution contend.
Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a stroll, was found secured to a post hidden in bushland about 30 metres from the grave.
No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no one have been identified.
But the state says the evidence – though indirect – was made up of proof that pointed to Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
This will include testimony that DNA obtained from a stick at the scene was 3.8 billion times more probable to have come from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the population.
The jury has previously been told testimony indicating that Ms Cordingley's mobile device left the beach after the incident – and that its movements corresponded with those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the defendant.
Mr Singh's quick exit from Australia also suggested his guilt, the prosecution has claimed.
Defence Stance
"While authorities were discovering Toyah's remains, he was organizing... a rushed one way trip back to India," the prosecutor said last week as he began arguments.
The defence is has not provided testimony, but in his initial statement, the defense attorney Greg McGuire portrayed his defendant as a "calm" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "incorrect location at the unfortunate moment."
He also foreshadowed testimony to come later in the trial that, after his apprehension, Mr Singh informed an plainclothes agent he had witnessed two masked men attack Ms Cordingley and then had run away in fear – something he said was his "gravest error."
The defense attorney has also said he will give evidence about individuals "identified and unidentified" who should come under suspicion.
Additional Testimony
Ms Cordingley's partner, Marco Heidenreich, whom authorities quickly ruled out as a person of interest, was among those who testified last week.
The trial heard he was an immediate person of interest – and that he had faced questions from Ms Cordingley's parent about whether he was involved in his girlfriend's vanishing, prior to her body were found.
Photographs depicting Mr Heidenreich on a hike with a companion on the day Ms Cordingley disappeared have been presented to the jury, with an specialist saying he was confident the photos were authentic and had not been doctored in any manner.
The case will resume to the standard environment of the courthouse on the next day.
