Jury in Prominent Australian Homicide Trial Visits Shoreline At Which Victim Was Discovered
Jurors involved in a high-profile Australian homicide case have traveled to the remote shore where the young woman was discovered.
Toyah Cordingley was multiple times stabbed with a sharp object and placed in a shallow resting place with minimal hope of surviving, the jury has been told.
Her body were discovered by her father the following day on Wangetti Beach – a section of shoreline nestled between the popular destinations of Cairns and Port Douglas.
Rajwinder Singh, 41, denies killing Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in northern Australia.
Jury Visit to Beach
The jury of 10 men and two women plus several alternates attended the beach along with the presiding officer and legal counsel on the start of the week in Queensland.
In a acknowledgment of the tropical conditions and sweltering heat, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a T-shirt, athletic wear and sneakers rather than traditional court attire.
Both the lead prosecution and defense attorneys chose polo shirts, shorts and headwear.
Scene Particulars
The jurors were led around 1.2km along the beach to observe where Ms Cordingley's body were uncovered.
Upon arrival, as they arrived by bus, four markers showed where the vehicle had been parked.
The visit was designed to help the jurors become familiar with important sites in the case and no official evidence was given.
Context of the Trial
Last week, the Cairns Supreme Court was informed that the day after Ms Cordingley's remains were found, the accused departed from Australia to India – abandoning his spouse, three children and parents.
He was out of contact until he was apprehended years after, the prosecution said.
Prosecution Case
It is alleged that Mr Singh, who was employed in healthcare in the town of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.
The pharmacy worker was discovered wearing a swimwear, with her attire and most of her possessions absent.
Those objects were removed by the killer to conceal evidence, the prosecution allege.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a stroll, was located secured to a post concealed in bushland about 30 metres from the burial site.
The weapon was found, and no one have been identified.
But the prosecution says the crown's case – though circumstantial – was made up of findings that indicated Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
This will involve evidence that DNA obtained from a object at the location was 3.8 billion times more likely to have originated from Mr Singh than a random member of the public.
The jury has already heard testimony suggesting that Ms Cordingley's mobile device left the beach after the incident – and that its travel corresponded with those of a vehicle owned by the accused.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also pointed to his guilt, the state has argued.
Defence Position
"As the police were discovering Toyah's remains, he was organizing... a rushed one way trip back to India," the prosecutor said last week as he began arguments.
The defense is yet to provided testimony, but in his initial statement, the defense attorney the lawyer described his client as a "calm" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "wrong place at the unfortunate moment."
He also foreshadowed evidence to come later in the trial that, after his arrest, Mr Singh told an undercover officer he had witnessed two masked men attack Ms Cordingley and then had fled in fear – something he said was his "biggest mistake."
Mr McGuire has also said he will testify about other people "both known and unknown" who should come under investigation.
Further Testimony
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, the witness, whom police quickly ruled out as a possible suspect, was one who testified previously.
The court heard he was an initial police suspect – and that he had faced questions from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was involved in his girlfriend's vanishing, prior to her remains were found.
Photographs depicting the witness on a hike with a companion on the day Ms Cordingley disappeared have been presented to the court, with an specialist saying he was confident the photos were genuine and had not been altered in any way.
The case will resume to the more conventional setting of the courtroom on the next day.