Jury in Prominent Down Under Homicide Case Tours Shoreline At Which Victim Was Found
Members of the jury overseeing a widely publicized Australian homicide case have traveled to the isolated beach where the young woman was located.
The 24-year-old victim was repeatedly attacked with a bladed weapon and placed in a shallow grave with little or no chance of survival, the jury has heard.
Her body were found by her father the next day on Wangetti Beach – a section of shoreline nestled between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.
Rajwinder Singh, 41, has pleaded not guilty to killing Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.
Jury Inspection to Beach
The panel of 12 individuals plus several back-up jurors attended 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, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a casual top, athletic wear and trainers rather than a wig and robes.
Both the lead prosecution and defense attorneys chose polo shirts, shorts and baseball caps.
Location Details
The court members were led around three-quarters of a mile north up the sand to observe where Ms Cordingley's body were discovered.
Earlier, as they traveled to the site, several markers showed where the vehicle had been parked.
The visit was intended to help the panel become familiar with important sites in the trial and no testimony was presented.
Context of the Trial
Previously, the Cairns Supreme Court was informed that the following day Ms Cordingley's body were found, the accused flew from Australia to India – leaving behind his spouse, three children and parents.
He was not heard from until he was arrested four years later, the prosecution said.
Prosecution Case
It is alleged that Mr Singh, who was working as a nurse in the community of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley.
The victim was discovered wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions absent.
Those objects were removed by the killer to conceal evidence, prosecutors allege.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a stroll, was found secured to a post hidden in bushland about 100 feet from the burial site.
No murder weapon was found, and no one have been found.
But the prosecution says the crown's case – though circumstantial – was comprised findings that pointed to Mr Singh "and eliminated others."
This will involve testimony that DNA obtained from a stick at the location was 3.8 billion times more probable to have come from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the public.
The jury has previously been told evidence indicating that Ms Cordingley's phone departed the beach after the incident – and that its movements corresponded with those of a vehicle owned by the accused.
Mr Singh's quick exit from Australia also pointed to his guilt, the prosecution has claimed.
Defense Position
"While authorities were discovering Toyah's body, he was organizing... a hurriedly arranged single journey back to India," Mr Crane said last week as he began arguments.
The defence is has not present any evidence, but in his initial statement, the defense attorney Greg McGuire described his client as a "placid" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "incorrect location at the wrong time."
He also foreshadowed testimony to come subsequently that, after his arrest, Mr Singh informed an undercover officer he had witnessed two masked men attack Ms Cordingley and then had fled in terror – something he said was his "gravest error."
The defense attorney has also said he will testify about individuals "both known and unknown" who should come under investigation.
Further Evidence
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom authorities excluded as a possible suspect, was among those who testified previously.
The trial was informed he was an immediate person of interest – and that he had faced questions from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was implicated in his partner's vanishing, even before her body were found.
Photographs depicting Mr Heidenreich on a hike with a friend on the day Ms Cordingley went missing have been shown to the jury, with an expert saying he was certain the pictures were genuine and had not been altered in any manner.
The case will resume to the more conventional setting of the courthouse on the next day.
