Jury in High-Profile Australian Homicide Case Tours Beach At Which Deceased Was Found
Members of the jury involved in a widely publicized Queensland murder trial have traveled to the isolated beach where the victim was located.
The 24-year-old victim was multiple times stabbed with a sharp object and placed in a sandy resting place with minimal chance of survival, the jury has heard.
The remains were found by her father the next day on Wangetti Beach – a stretch of coastline between the popular destinations of Cairns and Port Douglas.
Rajwinder Singh, 41, has pleaded not guilty to killing Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in northern Australia.
Court Inspection to Crime Scene
The jury of 10 men and two women plus several alternates visited the location along with the presiding officer and barristers on Monday morning local time.
In a acknowledgment of 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 casual shirts, shorts and baseball caps.
Location Details
The jurors were guided around 1.2km along the beach to see where Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered.
Earlier, as they arrived by bus, four red and white cones showed where the victim's car had been parked.
The trip was intended to help the panel become acquainted with key locations in the trial and no official evidence was presented.
Context of the Case
Previously, the Cairns Supreme Court was informed that the day after Ms Cordingley's body were found, Mr Singh departed from Australia to India – leaving behind his wife, family and parents.
He was out of contact until he was arrested years after, the state said.
State Argument
It is alleged that the defendant, who was working as a nurse in the community of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a confrontation 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 killer to avoid detection, prosecutors contend.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a walk, was found 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 evidence – though circumstantial – was comprised findings that pointed to Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
This will include testimony that DNA obtained from a stick at the scene was extremely more likely to have originated from Mr Singh than a random member of the population.
The jury has previously been told evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's phone departed the beach after the incident – and that its movements corresponded with those of a blue Alfa Romeo belonging to the accused.
Mr Singh's quick exit from Australia also pointed to his involvement, the prosecution has claimed.
Defence Position
"As the police were finding Toyah's remains, he was arranging... a rushed single journey back to India," the prosecutor said previously as he opened his case.
The defense is has not provided testimony, but in his initial statement, the defense attorney the lawyer portrayed his defendant as a "placid" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "wrong place at the wrong time."
He also foreshadowed evidence to come later in the trial that, after his apprehension, Mr Singh told an plainclothes agent he had seen assailants assault Ms Cordingley and then had run away in fear – something he said was his "gravest error."
Mr McGuire has also said he will testify about other people "identified and unidentified" who should come under suspicion.
Further Testimony
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, the witness, whom police excluded as a person of interest, was one who gave evidence last week.
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 girlfriend's vanishing, prior to her remains were discovered.
Images depicting Mr Heidenreich on a hike with a friend on the date Ms Cordingley disappeared have been shown to the jury, with an specialist 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.
