Jury in Prominent Australian Homicide Trial Tours Beach At Which Deceased Was Discovered
Members of the jury involved in a high-profile Australian homicide case have been taken to the isolated beach where the victim was discovered.
Toyah Cordingley was multiple times stabbed with a sharp object and buried in a shallow resting place with little or no chance of survival, the jury has been told.
The remains were discovered by a family member the next day on Wangetti Beach – a section of shoreline between the popular destinations of Cairns and Port Douglas.
Rajwinder Singh, 41, denies killing Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.
Jury Inspection to Beach
The panel of 12 individuals plus three back-up jurors attended the location along with the presiding officer and legal counsel on Monday morning local time.
In a nod to the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a T-shirt, athletic wear and trainers rather than traditional court attire.
Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers chose casual shirts, shorts and baseball caps.
Location Details
The court members were led around three-quarters of a mile along the beach to observe where Ms Cordingley's body were uncovered.
Upon arrival, as they arrived by bus, several red and white cones showed where the victim's car had been left.
The trip was designed to help the jurors become acquainted with important sites in the trial and no official evidence was given.
Background of the Case
Last week, the court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered, the accused flew from Australia to India – abandoning his wife, three children and relatives.
He was out of contact until he was arrested four years later, the state said.
State Case
It is claimed that the defendant, who was employed in healthcare in the community of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley.
The pharmacy worker was found wearing a bikini, with her attire and belongings absent.
Those items were taken by the assailant to avoid detection, the prosecution contend.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a stroll, was found secured to a post concealed in bushland about 30 metres from the grave.
No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no eyewitnesses have been identified.
But the prosecution says the crown's case – though circumstantial – was comprised proof that pointed to Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
This will involve evidence that DNA recovered from a object at the location was 3.8 billion times more probable to have originated from Mr Singh than a random member of the population.
The court has previously been told evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's mobile device left the beach after the killing – and that its movements corresponded with those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the accused.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also pointed to his involvement, the state has claimed.
Defense Position
"As the police were discovering Toyah's body, he was arranging... a rushed 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 opening address, Mr Singh's barrister Greg McGuire portrayed his client as a "placid" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "wrong place at the unfortunate moment."
He also foreshadowed evidence to come subsequently that, after his arrest, Mr Singh informed an plainclothes agent he had witnessed two masked men assault Ms Cordingley and then had fled in terror – something he said was his "gravest error."
Mr McGuire has also said he will testify about individuals "both known and unknown" who should come under investigation.
Additional Evidence
Ms Cordingley's partner, the witness, whom police quickly ruled out as a possible suspect, was one who gave evidence last week.
The court was informed he was an initial person of interest – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was implicated in his partner's disappearance, even before her body were discovered.
Images showing Mr Heidenreich on a walk with a friend on the date Ms Cordingley went missing have been shown to the jury, with an expert saying he was certain the pictures were authentic and had not been doctored in any way.
The case will return to the standard environment of the courtroom on Tuesday.