Panel of Jurors in Prominent Down Under Murder Trial Visits Shoreline At Which Victim Was Discovered
Members of the jury overseeing a high-profile Queensland homicide case have traveled to the remote shore where the victim was discovered.
The 24-year-old victim was repeatedly stabbed with a sharp object and buried in a sandy grave with minimal hope of surviving, the jury has heard.
Her body were found by a family member the next day on Wangetti Beach – a stretch of shoreline nestled between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.
Rajwinder Singh, 41, denies murdering Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.
Court Visit to Beach
The jury of 10 men and two women plus several alternates visited the beach along with the judge and legal counsel on Monday morning in Queensland.
In a acknowledgment of the hot climate and temperatures above 30C, the judge wore a casual top, athletic wear and sneakers rather than traditional court attire.
Both the prosecuting and defense attorneys chose casual shirts, shorts and headwear.
Scene Particulars
The court members were led around three-quarters of a mile north up the sand to see where Ms Cordingley's body were discovered.
Upon arrival, as they traveled to the site, several markers showed where the victim's car had been left.
The trip was intended to help the panel become familiar with important sites in the case and no official evidence was presented.
Background of the Trial
Previously, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the following day Ms Cordingley's body were discovered, Mr Singh flew from Australia to India – leaving behind his wife, three children and parents.
He was not heard from until he was apprehended four years later, the prosecution said.
Prosecution Argument
It is claimed that Mr Singh, who was employed in healthcare in the community of Innisfail, near Cairns, had a altercation 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 assailant to conceal evidence, prosecutors allege.
Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a walk, was located tied up to a post concealed in shrubland about 30 metres from the grave.
The weapon was found, and no one have been found.
But the state says the crown's case – though indirect – was made up of proof that indicated Mr Singh "and eliminated others."
This will include evidence that DNA recovered from a object at the scene was 3.8 billion times more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the population.
The court has already heard evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's mobile device departed the beach after the incident – and that its movements matched those of a blue Alfa Romeo belonging to the defendant.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also suggested his guilt, the prosecution has argued.
Defense Position
"As the police were finding Toyah's body, he was arranging... a rushed one way trip back to India," the prosecutor said last week as he began arguments.
The defence is yet to provided testimony, but in his initial statement, the defense attorney Greg McGuire portrayed his defendant as a "placid" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "wrong place at the wrong time."
He also foreshadowed testimony to come subsequently that, after his apprehension, Mr Singh told an undercover officer he had seen two masked men assault Ms Cordingley and then had run away in fear – something he said was his "gravest error."
The defense attorney has also said he will give evidence about other people "both known and unknown" who should come under suspicion.
Further Testimony
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom authorities quickly ruled out as a possible suspect, was among those who testified last week.
The trial heard he was an initial person of interest – and that he had faced questions from Ms Cordingley's parent about whether he was implicated in his girlfriend's vanishing, even before her remains were found.
Photographs showing Mr Heidenreich on a hike with a companion on the day Ms Cordingley went missing have been shown to the court, with an expert saying he was certain the pictures were genuine and had not been doctored in any manner.
The trial will return to the more conventional setting of the courtroom on the next day.