Panel of Jurors in Prominent Australian Homicide Case Visits Beach At Which Deceased Was Found
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 repeatedly attacked with a sharp object and buried in a sandy resting place with minimal chance of survival, the jury has heard.
Her body were discovered by her father the following day on Wangetti Beach – a stretch of shoreline between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.
Rajwinder Singh, 41, has pleaded not guilty to killing Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.
Court Inspection to Beach
The jury of 12 individuals plus three alternates visited the beach along with the presiding officer and legal counsel on Monday morning local time.
In a acknowledgment of the tropical conditions and sweltering heat, the judge wore a casual top, athletic wear and sneakers rather than traditional court attire.
Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers selected casual shirts, shorts and baseball caps.
Location Particulars
The jurors were led around 1.2km north up the sand to see where Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered.
Earlier, as they arrived by bus, several red and white cones showed where the vehicle had been left.
The trip was designed to help the panel become acquainted with important sites in the trial and no testimony was presented.
Background of the Trial
Last week, the court was informed that the day after Ms Cordingley's body were discovered, Mr Singh departed from Australia to India – leaving behind his spouse, three children and parents.
He was not heard from until he was arrested four years later, the prosecution said.
State Argument
It is claimed that the defendant, who was working as a nurse in the town of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.
The victim was found wearing a swimwear, with her attire and belongings missing.
Those objects were taken by the assailant to conceal evidence, prosecutors contend.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a stroll, was located tied up to a post concealed in shrubland about 30 metres from the burial site.
No murder weapon was found, and no eyewitnesses have been found.
But the state says the crown's case – though indirect – was made up of proof that indicated Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
This will include testimony that genetic material recovered from a stick at the scene was extremely more probable to have come from Mr Singh than a random member of the population.
The court has previously been told testimony indicating that Ms Cordingley's mobile device departed the scene after the incident – and that its movements matched those of a vehicle belonging to the defendant.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also suggested his guilt, the state has claimed.
Defense Stance
"While authorities were discovering Toyah's body, he was organizing... a hurriedly arranged single journey back to India," the prosecutor said previously as he opened his case.
The defence is has not present any evidence, but in his initial statement, Mr Singh's barrister the lawyer portrayed his defendant as a "calm" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "wrong place at the wrong time."
He also hinted at testimony to come later in the trial that, after his arrest, Mr Singh told an undercover officer he had seen two masked men assault Ms Cordingley and then had fled in fear – something he said was his "gravest error."
The defense attorney has also said he will testify about other people "both known and unknown" who should come under suspicion.
Further Evidence
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom authorities quickly ruled out as a possible suspect, was one who testified previously.
The trial heard he was an initial police suspect – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was involved in his partner's vanishing, prior to her body were found.
Images showing Mr Heidenreich on a hike with a friend on the date Ms Cordingley disappeared have been shown to the court, with an expert saying he was certain the photos were genuine and had not been doctored in any manner.
The trial will resume to the standard environment of the courtroom on the next day.
