Jury in Prominent Australian Murder Case Visits Shoreline At Which Deceased Was Found
Jurors overseeing a widely publicized Australian homicide case have been taken to the isolated beach where the young woman was located.
The 24-year-old victim was repeatedly stabbed with a bladed weapon and placed in a shallow resting place with little or no hope of surviving, the court has been told.
Her body were discovered by her father the following day on Wangetti Beach – a section of coastline nestled 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 northern Australia.
Jury Visit to Crime Scene
The jury of 12 individuals plus several back-up jurors visited the beach along with the presiding officer and legal counsel on Monday morning local time.
In a acknowledgment of the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a T-shirt, athletic wear and trainers rather than a wig and robes.
Both the lead prosecution and defense attorneys selected polo shirts, bottoms and headwear.
Location Details
The jurors were led around 1.2km along the beach to see where Ms Cordingley's body were discovered.
Upon arrival, as they arrived by bus, several red and white cones indicated where the vehicle had been left.
The visit was designed to help the panel become acquainted with important sites in the trial and no testimony was presented.
Context of the Trial
Last week, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's remains were found, Mr Singh departed from Australia to India – abandoning his wife, three children and parents.
He was out of contact until he was arrested four years later, the state said.
Prosecution Argument
It is claimed that Mr Singh, who was employed in healthcare in the town of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.
The pharmacy worker was found wearing a swimwear, with her attire and belongings absent.
Those objects were removed by the killer to conceal evidence, the prosecution allege.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a stroll, was found secured to a tree hidden in bushland about 100 feet from the grave.
No murder weapon was found, and no one have been found.
But the state says the evidence – though indirect – was comprised proof that indicated Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
This will involve testimony that DNA recovered from a object at the scene was extremely more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the population.
The court has already heard testimony indicating that Ms Cordingley's phone left the beach after the killing – and that its travel corresponded with those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the defendant.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also pointed to his guilt, the prosecution has argued.
Defence Position
"While authorities were discovering Toyah's body, he was arranging... a hurriedly arranged one way trip back to India," the prosecutor said last week as he opened his case.
The defense is yet to present any evidence, but in his opening address, Mr Singh's barrister the lawyer described his defendant as a "placid" and "caring" man, who was in the "wrong place at the unfortunate moment."
He also foreshadowed evidence to come later in the trial that, after his arrest, Mr Singh told an plainclothes agent he had seen two masked men assault Ms Cordingley and then had fled in terror – something he said was his "gravest error."
The defense attorney has also said he will give evidence about other people "identified and unidentified" 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 gave evidence last week.
The trial was informed he was an initial person of interest – and that he had faced questions from Ms Cordingley's parent about whether he was involved in his girlfriend's disappearance, prior to her body were found.
Images depicting 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 certain the photos were genuine and had not been doctored in any way.
The trial will resume to the standard environment of the courtroom on Tuesday.
