Jury in Prominent Australian Murder Trial Visits Beach At Which Victim Was Discovered
Jurors overseeing a high-profile Australian homicide case have traveled to the isolated shore where the victim was located.
Toyah Cordingley was repeatedly stabbed with a bladed weapon and buried in a shallow resting place with minimal chance of survival, the court has been told.
Her body were found 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, denies killing Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.
Court Visit to Crime Scene
The panel of 12 individuals plus three back-up jurors visited the location along with the presiding officer and barristers on Monday morning in Queensland.
In a nod to the hot climate and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a T-shirt, athletic wear and trainers rather than traditional court attire.
Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers chose polo shirts, bottoms and baseball caps.
Scene Details
The jurors were led around three-quarters of a mile north up the sand to observe where Ms Cordingley's remains were uncovered.
Upon arrival, as they arrived by bus, several markers indicated where the victim's car had been parked.
The trip was intended to help the panel become familiar with important sites in the case and no testimony was presented.
Context of the Trial
Last week, the court was informed that the following day Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered, the accused flew from Australia to India – abandoning his spouse, three children and parents.
He was out of contact until he was apprehended four years later, the prosecution said.
Prosecution Case
It is alleged that the defendant, who was employed in healthcare in the town of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.
The victim was found wearing a swimwear, with her attire and most of her possessions missing.
Those items were removed by the assailant to conceal evidence, the prosecution allege.
Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a walk, was located tied up to a post hidden in bushland about 30 metres from the burial site.
No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no eyewitnesses have been identified.
But the prosecution says the evidence – though circumstantial – was comprised findings that pointed to Mr Singh "and eliminated others."
This will involve testimony that DNA recovered from a stick at the location was extremely more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the population.
The jury has already heard testimony indicating that Ms Cordingley's mobile device left the scene after the incident – and that its travel corresponded with those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the accused.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also suggested his guilt, the state has argued.
Defense Position
"As the police were finding Toyah's remains, he was organizing... a hurriedly arranged one way trip back to India," Mr Crane said last week as he began arguments.
The defence is yet to provided testimony, but in his initial statement, the defense attorney the lawyer portrayed his client as a "calm" and "caring" man, who was in the "incorrect location at the wrong time."
He also foreshadowed testimony 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 terror – something he said was his "biggest mistake."
Mr McGuire has also said he will give evidence about individuals "both known and unknown" who should come under investigation.
Additional Testimony
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, the witness, whom police quickly ruled out as a person of interest, was one who testified last week.
The court heard he was an immediate person of interest – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was implicated in his partner's disappearance, even before her remains were found.
Images showing Mr Heidenreich on a walk with a friend on the date Ms Cordingley went missing have been presented to the jury, with an specialist saying he was confident the pictures were authentic and had not been doctored in any manner.
The case will return to the more conventional setting of the courthouse on Tuesday.
