Jury in High-Profile Down Under Murder Trial Visits Shoreline At Which Deceased Was Found
Jurors overseeing a high-profile Queensland homicide case have traveled to the remote shore where the victim 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 been told.
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, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.
Court Visit to Beach
The jury of 10 men and two women plus several back-up jurors visited the beach along with the judge and legal counsel on Monday morning local time.
In a acknowledgment of the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley opted for a T-shirt, athletic wear and sneakers rather than traditional court attire.
Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers chose polo shirts, shorts and headwear.
Scene Details
The jurors were guided around 1.2km north up the sand to observe where Ms Cordingley's body were uncovered.
Earlier, as they traveled to the site, four red and white cones indicated where the victim's car had been left.
The trip was intended to help the panel become acquainted with key locations in the trial and no official evidence was given.
Background of the Trial
Last week, the Cairns Supreme Court was informed that the following day Ms Cordingley's remains were found, Mr Singh departed from Australia to India – abandoning his wife, three children and relatives.
He was out of contact until he was arrested years after, the state said.
State Case
It is alleged that the defendant, who was employed in healthcare in the town of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley.
The pharmacy worker was found wearing a swimwear, with her attire and belongings missing.
Those items were taken by the assailant to avoid detection, the prosecution contend.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a walk, was located tied up to a tree hidden in shrubland about 30 metres from the grave.
The weapon was ever recovered, and no one have been found.
But the state says the evidence – though circumstantial – was made up of proof that pointed to Mr Singh "and eliminated others."
This will include testimony that DNA recovered from a object at the location was 3.8 billion times more probable to have come from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the public.
The court has previously been told testimony suggesting that Ms Cordingley's mobile device left the scene after the incident – and that its movements matched those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the defendant.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also suggested his involvement, 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," Mr Crane said last week as he opened his case.
The defense is has not present any evidence, but in his opening address, Mr Singh's barrister Greg McGuire portrayed his defendant as a "placid" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "wrong place at the wrong time."
He also hinted at evidence to come later in the trial that, after his apprehension, Mr Singh told an plainclothes agent he had seen two masked men attack Ms Cordingley and then had fled 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 investigation.
Additional Evidence
Ms Cordingley's partner, Marco Heidenreich, whom police excluded as a person of interest, was one who gave evidence previously.
The court heard he was an initial police suspect – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was involved in his girlfriend's vanishing, even before her remains were discovered.
Images depicting the witness on a hike with a friend on the date Ms Cordingley went missing have been shown to the court, with an specialist saying he was confident the pictures were authentic and had not been altered in any manner.
The case will return to the standard environment of the courthouse on Tuesday.
