Jury in High-Profile Australian Homicide Case Visits Shoreline At Which Victim Was Discovered
Members of the jury overseeing a high-profile Queensland murder trial have been taken to the isolated beach where the victim was located.
Toyah Cordingley was repeatedly stabbed with a bladed weapon and buried in a shallow grave with little or no chance of survival, the jury has been told.
The remains were discovered by a family member the following day on Wangetti Beach – a stretch of shoreline 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 panel of 12 individuals plus three back-up jurors visited the location along with the judge and legal counsel on Monday morning local time.
In a acknowledgment of the hot climate and temperatures above 30C, the judge opted for a casual top, athletic wear and trainers rather than traditional court attire.
Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers selected polo shirts, shorts and headwear.
Location Particulars
The court members were led around three-quarters of a mile along the beach to observe where Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered.
Upon arrival, as they traveled to the site, four red and white cones showed where the vehicle had been left.
The trip was intended to help the panel become acquainted with important sites in the case and no testimony was presented.
Context of the Trial
Previously, the court was informed that the following day Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered, the accused departed from Australia to India – abandoning his spouse, three children and relatives.
He was not heard from until he was apprehended four years later, the prosecution said.
State Case
It is claimed that the defendant, who was working as a nurse in the town of Innisfail, near Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.
The pharmacy worker was found wearing a swimwear, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions absent.
Those items were taken by the assailant to conceal evidence, the prosecution contend.
Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a walk, was located tied up to a tree hidden in bushland about 30 metres from the burial site.
The weapon was ever recovered, and no one have been found.
But the prosecution says the evidence – though circumstantial – was made up of findings that indicated Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
This will involve testimony that genetic material recovered from a object at the location was extremely more probable to have originated from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the public.
The jury has already heard evidence indicating that Ms Cordingley's mobile device departed the scene after the incident – and that its movements corresponded with those of a blue Alfa Romeo belonging to the accused.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also pointed to his involvement, the state has claimed.
Defense Position
"As the police were discovering Toyah's remains, he was organizing... a rushed one way trip back to India," the prosecutor said previously as he opened his case.
The defense is has not present any evidence, but in his initial statement, Mr Singh's barrister the lawyer described his defendant as a "calm" and "caring" man, who was in the "incorrect location at the unfortunate moment."
He also hinted at evidence to come later in the trial that, after his apprehension, Mr Singh informed an plainclothes agent he had seen two masked men assault Ms Cordingley and then had run away in fear – something he said was his "biggest mistake."
The defense attorney has also said he will give evidence about individuals "both known and unknown" who should come under investigation.
Further Testimony
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, the witness, whom police 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 father about whether he was implicated in his partner's vanishing, prior to her body were discovered.
Photographs showing Mr Heidenreich on a walk with a friend on the date Ms Cordingley disappeared have been shown to the court, with an specialist saying he was confident the photos were authentic and had not been altered in any manner.
The trial will resume to the standard environment of the courthouse on the next day.