Panel of Jurors in High-Profile Australian Murder Trial Tours Beach Where Deceased Was Discovered
Members of the jury involved in a high-profile Queensland homicide case have traveled to the isolated shore where the young woman was located.
The 24-year-old victim was repeatedly attacked with a sharp object and buried in a sandy 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 popular destinations of Cairns and Port Douglas.
Rajwinder Singh, 41, has pleaded not guilty to killing Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in northern Australia.
Jury Visit to Beach
The panel of 10 men and two women plus several back-up jurors visited the beach along with the presiding officer and barristers on Monday morning in Queensland.
In a nod to the tropical conditions and sweltering heat, the judge wore a T-shirt, sport shorts and sneakers rather than a wig and robes.
Both the prosecuting and defence barristers selected casual shirts, shorts and headwear.
Scene Details
The court members were led around three-quarters of a mile along the beach to see where Ms Cordingley's body were uncovered.
Earlier, as they traveled to the site, four markers indicated where the victim's car had been left.
The trip was intended to help the panel become acquainted with important sites in the case and no testimony was given.
Context of the Trial
Last week, the court was informed that the day after Ms Cordingley's body were found, the accused departed from Australia to India – abandoning his wife, three children and parents.
He was not heard from until he was apprehended years after, the state said.
Prosecution Case
It is claimed that the defendant, who was working as a nurse in the town of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley.
The pharmacy worker was found wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and belongings missing.
Those items were removed by the killer to avoid detection, prosecutors allege.
Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a walk, was found tied up to a post hidden in bushland about 100 feet from the burial site.
The weapon was found, and no eyewitnesses have been identified.
But the prosecution says the evidence – though indirect – was made up of proof that indicated Mr Singh "and eliminated others."
This will involve testimony that genetic material obtained from a stick at the location was extremely more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a random member of the public.
The jury has already heard testimony indicating that Ms Cordingley's mobile device left the scene after the killing – and that its movements matched those of a vehicle belonging to the defendant.
Mr Singh's quick exit from Australia also pointed to his guilt, the prosecution has argued.
Defense Position
"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 provided testimony, but in his initial statement, the defense attorney the lawyer portrayed his defendant as a "calm" and "caring" man, who was in the "wrong place at the unfortunate moment."
He also foreshadowed evidence to come subsequently that, after his arrest, Mr Singh informed an plainclothes agent he had witnessed assailants attack Ms Cordingley and then had run away in terror – something he said was his "gravest error."
The defense attorney has also said he will give evidence about other people "both known and unknown" who should come under suspicion.
Additional Evidence
Ms Cordingley's partner, Marco Heidenreich, whom police quickly ruled out as a person of interest, was among those who gave evidence last week.
The court heard he was an initial police suspect – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was implicated in his partner's vanishing, prior to her body were found.
Photographs depicting Mr Heidenreich on a walk with a companion on the day Ms Cordingley disappeared have been presented to the court, with an expert saying he was confident the pictures were authentic and had not been doctored in any way.
The case will resume to the more conventional setting of the courtroom on the next day.