Jury in High-Profile Down Under Murder Trial Visits Shoreline Where Deceased Was Found
Members of the jury involved in a widely publicized Australian murder trial have traveled to the remote shore where the victim was discovered.
The 24-year-old victim was multiple times stabbed with a sharp object and buried in a shallow resting place with little or no hope of surviving, the court has been told.
The remains 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.
Jury Visit to Beach
The jury of 10 men and two women plus several alternates attended the beach along with the presiding officer and barristers on Monday morning in Queensland.
In a acknowledgment of the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a casual top, sport shorts and sneakers rather than a wig and robes.
Both the lead prosecution and defense attorneys chose polo shirts, bottoms and baseball caps.
Scene Particulars
The jurors were led around three-quarters of a mile north up the sand to observe where Ms Cordingley's body were uncovered.
Upon arrival, as they traveled to the site, several markers indicated where the vehicle had been left.
The visit was designed to help the jurors become acquainted with important sites in the case and no testimony was presented.
Context of the Trial
Last week, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's body were found, the accused flew from Australia to India – abandoning his spouse, family and parents.
He was out of contact until he was apprehended four years later, the state said.
Prosecution Argument
It is alleged that the defendant, who was employed in healthcare in the town of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley.
The victim was found wearing a swimwear, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions absent.
Those items were taken by the assailant to avoid detection, the prosecution allege.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a walk, was located secured to a tree hidden in shrubland about 100 feet from the burial site.
No murder weapon was found, and no eyewitnesses have been found.
But the state says the crown's case – though circumstantial – was made up of findings that indicated Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
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 jury has previously been told evidence indicating that Ms Cordingley's mobile device departed the beach after the killing – and that its movements corresponded with those of a vehicle owned by the accused.
Mr Singh's quick exit from Australia also pointed to his involvement, the prosecution has argued.
Defence Position
"While authorities were finding Toyah's body, he was organizing... a hurriedly arranged one way trip back to India," the prosecutor said previously as he began arguments.
The defence is yet to present any evidence, but in his initial statement, Mr Singh's barrister Greg McGuire portrayed his client as a "calm" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "wrong place at the unfortunate moment."
He also hinted at testimony to come later in the trial that, after his arrest, Mr Singh informed an plainclothes agent he had seen assailants assault Ms Cordingley and then had run away in terror – something he said was his "gravest error."
Mr McGuire has also said he will give evidence about other people "both known and unknown" who should come under investigation.
Further Evidence
Ms Cordingley's partner, Marco Heidenreich, whom police excluded as a possible suspect, 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, prior to her remains were found.
Photographs showing Mr Heidenreich on a walk with a friend on the day Ms Cordingley disappeared have been shown to the court, with an specialist saying he was certain the photos were authentic and had not been altered in any way.
The case will resume to the more conventional setting of the courtroom on Tuesday.