Jury in Prominent Australian Homicide Case Visits Beach At Which Deceased Was Found
Jurors involved in a widely publicized Queensland murder trial have been taken to the remote shore where the victim was discovered.
Toyah Cordingley was repeatedly attacked with a sharp object and placed in a shallow resting place with minimal hope of surviving, the jury has heard.
The remains were discovered by her father the next day on Wangetti Beach – a section of coastline nestled 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.
Court Inspection to Crime Scene
The jury of 12 individuals plus several back-up jurors visited the location along with the presiding officer and legal counsel on Monday morning local time.
In a acknowledgment of the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a T-shirt, athletic wear and trainers rather than a wig and robes.
Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers selected casual shirts, bottoms and headwear.
Scene Particulars
The court members were guided around three-quarters of a mile along the beach to observe where Ms Cordingley's remains were uncovered.
Upon arrival, as they traveled to the site, several markers indicated where the victim's car had been parked.
The visit was designed to help the jurors become familiar with important sites in the case and no testimony was given.
Context of the Trial
Previously, the Cairns Supreme Court was informed that the day after Ms Cordingley's remains were found, Mr Singh flew from Australia to India – abandoning his wife, three children and relatives.
He was not heard from until he was arrested 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 confrontation with Ms Cordingley.
The victim was discovered wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and belongings absent.
Those objects were removed by the assailant to avoid detection, prosecutors allege.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a stroll, was found tied up to a tree concealed in bushland about 30 metres from the burial site.
The weapon was ever recovered, and no eyewitnesses have been found.
But the prosecution says the evidence – though circumstantial – was comprised proof that pointed to Mr Singh "and eliminated others."
This will include evidence that genetic material recovered from a object at the scene was extremely more probable to have originated from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the population.
The jury has already heard evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's phone left the beach after the killing – and that its travel corresponded with those of a vehicle owned by the accused.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also pointed to his involvement, the prosecution has argued.
Defence Stance
"While authorities were finding Toyah's remains, he was organizing... a rushed single journey back to India," Mr Crane said last week as he began arguments.
The defense is yet to 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 wrong time."
He also foreshadowed evidence to come later in the trial that, after his arrest, Mr Singh told an undercover officer he had seen assailants assault Ms Cordingley and then had run away in terror – something he said was his "gravest error."
Mr McGuire has also said he will give evidence about individuals "identified and unidentified" who should come under suspicion.
Further Testimony
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom authorities quickly ruled out as a person of interest, was one who testified previously.
The court was informed he was an initial person of interest – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was involved in his partner's vanishing, prior to her body were found.
Photographs depicting the witness on a walk with a companion on the date Ms Cordingley went missing have been presented to the jury, with an specialist saying he was confident the pictures were genuine and had not been doctored in any way.
The trial will return to the standard environment of the courtroom on Tuesday.
