Jurors in a high-profile Australian murder trial have been taken to the remote Queensland beach where Toyah Cordingley's body was found. Toyah was 'repeatedly' stabbed with a sharp object and put in a shallow sandy grave with 'little or no hope of surviving', the jury has heard. The 24-year-old's body was discovered by her father the following 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 Far North Queensland.
The jury of 10 men and two women, plus three back-up jurors, attended the beach along with the judge and barristers on Monday morning local time, as the second week of the trial got under way. In a nod to the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a T-shirt, sport shorts and trainers rather than a wig and robes. Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers opted for polo shirts, shorts and baseball caps.
The jurors were led around 1.2km north up the sand to see where Ms Cordingley's body was discovered. Earlier, as they arrived by bus, four red and white cones marked where the victim's car had been parked. The trip was intended to help the jurors become familiar with key locations in the case and no official evidence was given.
Last week, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's body was discovered, Mr Singh flew from Australia to India – leaving behind his wife, three children and parents. He was not heard from until he was arrested four years later, the prosecution said.
It is alleged that Mr Singh, who was working as a nurse in the town of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley, whom prosecutor Nathan Crane described as 'a young woman, blonde and attractive'. The pharmacy worker was found wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions missing. Those items were taken by the killer to avoid detection, prosecutors allege. Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a walk, was found tied up to a tree hidden in shrubland about 30 metres from the grave.
No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no eyewitnesses have been found. But the prosecution says the crown's case – though circumstantial – is made up of evidence that points to Mr Singh 'and eliminates others'. This includes evidence that DNA recovered from a stick at the scene was 3.8 billion times more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a random member of the public. The jury has also heard evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's phone left the beach after the killing – and that its movements matched those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the accused.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also pointed to his guilt, the prosecution argued. 'As the police were finding Toyah's body, he was organising... a hurriedly arranged one way trip back to India,' Mr Crane said last week as he opened his case. The defence is yet to present evidence, but in his opening address, Mr Singh's barrister Greg McGuire described his client as a 'placid' 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 two masked men attack Ms Cordingley and then had run away in fear - something he said was his 'biggest mistake'. The court heard Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, was an immediate police suspect but was ruled out after providing evidence that included photographs showing him on a hike with a friend on the day she went missing. The trial will return to the more conventional setting of the courthouse on Tuesday.
The jury of 10 men and two women, plus three back-up jurors, attended the beach along with the judge and barristers on Monday morning local time, as the second week of the trial got under way. In a nod to the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a T-shirt, sport shorts and trainers rather than a wig and robes. Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers opted for polo shirts, shorts and baseball caps.
The jurors were led around 1.2km north up the sand to see where Ms Cordingley's body was discovered. Earlier, as they arrived by bus, four red and white cones marked where the victim's car had been parked. The trip was intended to help the jurors become familiar with key locations in the case and no official evidence was given.
Last week, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's body was discovered, Mr Singh flew from Australia to India – leaving behind his wife, three children and parents. He was not heard from until he was arrested four years later, the prosecution said.
It is alleged that Mr Singh, who was working as a nurse in the town of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley, whom prosecutor Nathan Crane described as 'a young woman, blonde and attractive'. The pharmacy worker was found wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions missing. Those items were taken by the killer to avoid detection, prosecutors allege. Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a walk, was found tied up to a tree hidden in shrubland about 30 metres from the grave.
No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no eyewitnesses have been found. But the prosecution says the crown's case – though circumstantial – is made up of evidence that points to Mr Singh 'and eliminates others'. This includes evidence that DNA recovered from a stick at the scene was 3.8 billion times more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a random member of the public. The jury has also heard evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's phone left the beach after the killing – and that its movements matched those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the accused.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also pointed to his guilt, the prosecution argued. 'As the police were finding Toyah's body, he was organising... a hurriedly arranged one way trip back to India,' Mr Crane said last week as he opened his case. The defence is yet to present evidence, but in his opening address, Mr Singh's barrister Greg McGuire described his client as a 'placid' 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 two masked men attack Ms Cordingley and then had run away in fear - something he said was his 'biggest mistake'. The court heard Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, was an immediate police suspect but was ruled out after providing evidence that included photographs showing him on a hike with a friend on the day she went missing. The trial will return to the more conventional setting of the courthouse on Tuesday.
