Jury in High-Profile Australian Murder Trial Visits Beach Where Victim Was Found
Members of the jury overseeing a widely publicized Australian homicide case have been taken to the remote shore where the young woman was located.
The 24-year-old victim was multiple times stabbed with a sharp object and placed in a shallow resting place with little or no hope of surviving, the court has been told.
The remains were discovered by a family member 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 murdering Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in northern Australia.
Court Visit to Beach
The jury of 10 men and two women plus several back-up jurors visited the beach along with the presiding officer and legal counsel on the start of the week in Queensland.
In a nod to the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley opted for a T-shirt, athletic wear and trainers rather than a wig and robes.
Both the lead prosecution and defense attorneys selected polo shirts, shorts and headwear.
Scene Particulars
The jurors were guided around three-quarters of a mile north up the sand to see where Ms Cordingley's remains were uncovered.
Upon arrival, as they traveled to the site, four red and white cones showed where the victim's car had been parked.
The visit was designed to help the panel become acquainted with key locations in the trial and no testimony was presented.
Context of the Case
Previously, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the following day Ms Cordingley's body were discovered, the accused flew from Australia to India – leaving behind his wife, family and parents.
He was not heard from until he was apprehended years after, the prosecution said.
Prosecution Argument
It is alleged that the defendant, who was working as a nurse in the community of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.
The pharmacy worker was found wearing a swimwear, with all her other clothes and belongings missing.
Those objects were removed by the assailant to avoid detection, the prosecution allege.
Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a walk, was located tied up to a post hidden in shrubland about 100 feet from the grave.
The weapon was ever recovered, and no one have been identified.
But the prosecution says the crown's case – though circumstantial – was made up of proof that pointed to Mr Singh "and eliminated others."
This will involve testimony that genetic material obtained from a stick at the location was 3.8 billion times more probable to have originated from Mr Singh than a random member of the public.
The court has already heard evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's phone left the scene after the incident – and that its travel matched those of a vehicle owned by the defendant.
Mr Singh's quick exit from Australia also suggested his guilt, the prosecution has claimed.
Defense Stance
"As the police were discovering Toyah's remains, he was arranging... a rushed one way trip back to India," the prosecutor said previously as he opened his case.
The defence is yet to provided testimony, but in his initial statement, Mr Singh's barrister Greg McGuire portrayed his client as a "calm" and "caring" man, who was in the "incorrect location at the unfortunate moment."
He also foreshadowed evidence to come subsequently that, after his arrest, Mr Singh informed an plainclothes agent he had witnessed assailants assault 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 "identified and unidentified" who should come under suspicion.
Further Testimony
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, the witness, whom authorities quickly ruled out as a possible suspect, was among those who testified previously.
The court was informed he was an immediate person of interest – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was involved in his girlfriend's vanishing, prior to her remains were discovered.
Images showing the witness on a walk with a companion on the day Ms Cordingley disappeared have been shown to the jury, with an expert saying he was confident the pictures were genuine and had not been altered in any manner.
The trial will resume to the more conventional setting of the courthouse on Tuesday.
