Panel of Jurors in Prominent Australian Homicide Case Tours Beach Where Deceased Was Found
Members of the jury involved in a widely publicized Queensland homicide case have traveled to the isolated beach where the victim was discovered.
Toyah Cordingley was multiple times stabbed with a sharp object and buried in a sandy resting place with little or no hope of surviving, the jury has heard.
Her body were found by her father the next day on Wangetti Beach – a stretch of shoreline between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.
Rajwinder Singh, 41, denies killing Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in northern Australia.
Jury Visit to Crime Scene
The jury of 12 individuals plus three back-up jurors attended the location along with the judge and legal counsel on the start of the week local time.
In a acknowledgment of the hot climate and sweltering heat, Justice Lincoln Crowley opted for a casual top, sport shorts and trainers rather than a wig and robes.
Both the lead prosecution and defense attorneys selected polo shirts, shorts and baseball caps.
Location Particulars
The jurors were led around three-quarters of a mile along the beach to see where Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered.
Upon arrival, as they traveled to the site, four red and white cones showed where the vehicle had been parked.
The visit was intended to help the jurors become acquainted with important sites in the trial and no official evidence was presented.
Background of the Trial
Last week, the Cairns Supreme Court was informed that the day after Ms Cordingley's body were discovered, the accused departed from Australia to India – abandoning his spouse, family and relatives.
He was not heard from until he was arrested four years later, the state said.
Prosecution Case
It is claimed that the defendant, who was employed in healthcare in the community of Innisfail, near Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.
The victim was found wearing a swimwear, with all her other clothes and belongings missing.
Those items were removed by the assailant to conceal evidence, prosecutors contend.
Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a stroll, was found secured to a post concealed in bushland about 100 feet from the grave.
The weapon was found, and no one have been identified.
But the state says the crown's case – though indirect – was comprised findings that indicated Mr Singh "and eliminated others."
This will include testimony that genetic material recovered from a object at the location was 3.8 billion times more probable to have originated from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the population.
The court has previously been told evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's mobile device left the scene after the incident – and that its travel matched those of a vehicle owned by the defendant.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also pointed to his guilt, the state has claimed.
Defence Stance
"While authorities were discovering Toyah's body, he was organizing... a hurriedly arranged one way trip back to India," Mr Crane said previously as he opened his case.
The defense is has not provided testimony, but in his initial statement, the defense attorney Greg McGuire described his defendant as a "placid" and "compassionate" 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 undercover officer he had seen assailants 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 "identified and unidentified" who should come under investigation.
Additional Testimony
Ms Cordingley's partner, Marco Heidenreich, whom authorities quickly ruled out as a person of interest, was among those who gave evidence previously.
The court was informed he was an immediate police suspect – and that he had faced questions from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was involved in his girlfriend's vanishing, prior to her body were discovered.
Images showing Mr Heidenreich on a hike with a friend on the date Ms Cordingley went missing have been presented to the court, with an specialist saying he was confident the pictures were genuine and had not been altered in any manner.
The trial will resume to the standard environment of the courtroom on the next day.