Panel of Jurors in Prominent Australian Murder Case Visits Beach Where Deceased Was Discovered
Members of the jury overseeing a high-profile Australian homicide case have traveled to the isolated beach where the young woman was discovered.
Toyah Cordingley was repeatedly stabbed with a sharp object and buried in a shallow grave with little or no hope of surviving, the jury has heard.
The remains were found by a family member the following day on Wangetti Beach – a section of coastline between the popular destinations of Cairns and Port Douglas.
Rajwinder Singh, 41, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in northern Australia.
Jury Inspection to Beach
The jury of 12 individuals plus three back-up jurors attended the beach along with the presiding officer and barristers on Monday morning local time.
In a acknowledgment of the hot climate and sweltering heat, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a T-shirt, athletic wear and trainers rather than traditional court attire.
Both the prosecuting and defense attorneys selected polo shirts, shorts and headwear.
Location Details
The court members were led around three-quarters of a mile north up the sand to observe where Ms Cordingley's remains were uncovered.
Earlier, as they arrived by bus, several red and white cones showed where the vehicle had been left.
The visit was intended to help the panel become familiar with important sites in the trial and no testimony was given.
Background of the Case
Last week, the court heard that the following day Ms Cordingley's body were found, Mr Singh departed from Australia to India – leaving behind his wife, family and relatives.
He was out of contact until he was apprehended years after, the state said.
Prosecution Argument
It is alleged that Mr Singh, who was working as a nurse in the community of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley.
The victim was found wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions absent.
Those items were removed by the killer to avoid detection, the prosecution contend.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a stroll, was found secured to a tree hidden in bushland about 30 metres from the grave.
No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no one have been identified.
But the prosecution says the crown's case – though circumstantial – was made up of findings that indicated Mr Singh "and eliminated others."
This will include evidence that DNA recovered from a object at the scene was 3.8 billion times more likely to have originated from Mr Singh than a random member of the population.
The jury has already heard evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's phone departed the scene after the incident – and that its movements matched those of a blue Alfa Romeo belonging to the defendant.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also pointed to his guilt, the prosecution has argued.
Defense Stance
"While authorities were discovering Toyah's remains, he was arranging... a hurriedly arranged one way trip back to India," the prosecutor said last week as he opened his case.
The defense is has not provided testimony, but in his initial statement, the defense attorney Greg McGuire portrayed his client as a "calm" and "caring" man, who was in the "wrong place at the unfortunate moment."
He also foreshadowed testimony to come later in the trial that, after his apprehension, Mr Singh told an undercover officer he had seen two masked men assault Ms Cordingley and then had fled in terror – something he said was his "gravest error."
The defense attorney has also said he will give evidence about other people "identified and unidentified" who should come under suspicion.
Additional Testimony
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom authorities excluded as a person of interest, was among those who testified last week.
The trial was informed he was an initial police suspect – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's parent about whether he was involved in his partner's vanishing, prior to her body were found.
Photographs showing Mr Heidenreich on a hike with a companion on the date Ms Cordingley disappeared have been presented to the jury, with an expert saying he was certain the photos were genuine and had not been doctored in any manner.
The trial will resume to the more conventional setting of the courtroom on Tuesday.
