Panel of Jurors in Prominent Australian Murder Trial Visits Shoreline Where Victim Was Discovered
Jurors involved in a widely publicized Australian murder trial have been taken to the remote beach where the young woman was located.
Toyah Cordingley was multiple times stabbed with a sharp object and buried in a sandy resting place with little or no chance of survival, the court has been told.
The remains were 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 northern Australia.
Court Visit to Crime Scene
The jury of 12 individuals plus several alternates visited the location along with the judge and legal counsel on the start of the week local time.
In a acknowledgment of the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, the judge opted for a casual top, athletic wear and sneakers rather than a wig and robes.
Both the prosecuting and defence barristers selected casual shirts, shorts and baseball caps.
Scene Details
The jurors were led around 1.2km north up the sand to see where Ms Cordingley's body were discovered.
Earlier, as they arrived by bus, several markers showed where the vehicle had been parked.
The visit was designed to help the panel become acquainted with important sites in the case and no official evidence was presented.
Context of the Case
Previously, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the following day Ms Cordingley's body were found, Mr Singh departed from Australia to India – abandoning his spouse, family and parents.
He was not heard from until he was arrested years after, the state said.
State Argument
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 pharmacy worker was found wearing a swimwear, with her attire and most of her possessions missing.
Those objects were removed by the killer to conceal evidence, the prosecution contend.
Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a walk, was located tied up to a tree hidden in shrubland about 100 feet from the burial site.
No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no one have been found.
But the state says the crown's case – though indirect – was comprised findings that indicated Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
This will involve evidence that genetic material recovered from a stick at the location was 3.8 billion times more likely to have originated from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the population.
The jury has previously been told evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's mobile device left the beach after the killing – and that its travel matched those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the defendant.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also pointed to his involvement, the state has claimed.
Defence Position
"As the police were discovering Toyah's remains, he was arranging... a rushed single journey back to India," Mr Crane said last week as he began arguments.
The defence is yet to provided testimony, but in his initial statement, Mr Singh's barrister the lawyer portrayed his defendant as a "placid" and "caring" man, who was in the "incorrect location at the unfortunate moment."
He also foreshadowed evidence to come later in the trial that, after his arrest, Mr Singh informed an plainclothes agent he had seen assailants attack Ms Cordingley and then had fled in fear – something he said was his "gravest error."
Mr McGuire has also said he will testify about other people "identified and unidentified" who should come under investigation.
Additional Testimony
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom police quickly ruled out as a possible suspect, was among those who gave evidence last week.
The trial heard he was an immediate police suspect – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's parent about whether he was involved in his girlfriend's disappearance, even before her body were discovered.
Images showing the witness on a hike with a friend on the date Ms Cordingley went missing have been shown to the jury, with an expert saying he was certain the photos were authentic and had not been doctored in any manner.
The case will return to the more conventional setting of the courthouse on Tuesday.