Panel of Jurors in High-Profile Down Under Murder Trial Tours Shoreline At Which Deceased Was Discovered
Members of the jury overseeing a widely publicized Queensland homicide case have traveled to the remote beach where the victim was located.
Toyah Cordingley was repeatedly attacked with a sharp object and placed in a shallow grave with minimal chance of survival, the court has been told.
Her body were discovered by a family member the following day on Wangetti Beach – a section of coastline nestled between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.
The accused, 41, has pleaded not guilty to killing Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.
Jury Inspection to Crime Scene
The jury of 12 individuals plus three back-up jurors attended the beach along with the presiding officer and barristers on Monday morning in Queensland.
In a acknowledgment of the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, the judge wore a T-shirt, sport shorts and trainers rather than traditional court attire.
Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers selected polo shirts, shorts and baseball caps.
Scene Details
The jurors were guided around 1.2km north up the sand to see where Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered.
Earlier, as they arrived by bus, several markers showed where the vehicle had been left.
The visit was designed to help the jurors become acquainted with key locations in the case and no official evidence was given.
Background of the Trial
Previously, the court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's remains were found, Mr Singh departed from Australia to India – abandoning his spouse, three children and relatives.
He was not heard from until he was apprehended years after, the state said.
State Case
It is alleged that the defendant, who was working as a nurse in the town of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley.
The pharmacy worker was discovered wearing a swimwear, with her attire and belongings absent.
Those items were removed by the killer to avoid detection, prosecutors allege.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a walk, was located tied up to a post concealed in shrubland about 30 metres from the grave.
No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no eyewitnesses have been identified.
But the state says the evidence – though circumstantial – was made up of proof that pointed to Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
This will include evidence that DNA obtained from a stick at the scene was 3.8 billion times more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a random member of the public.
The court has already heard testimony indicating that Ms Cordingley's mobile device left the scene after the incident – and that its movements matched those of a vehicle owned by the defendant.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also suggested his involvement, the state has argued.
Defence Stance
"As the police were discovering Toyah's remains, he was arranging... a hurriedly arranged single journey back to India," Mr Crane said previously as he opened his case.
The defence is yet to provided testimony, but in his initial statement, Mr Singh's barrister the lawyer described his client as a "calm" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "incorrect location 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 two masked men assault Ms Cordingley and then had fled in fear – something he said was his "gravest error."
Mr McGuire has also said he will give evidence about individuals "identified and unidentified" who should come under investigation.
Additional Testimony
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom police excluded as a person of interest, was among those 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 implicated in his girlfriend's vanishing, even before her remains were found.
Photographs depicting the witness on a walk with a companion on the date Ms Cordingley disappeared have been shown to the court, with an specialist saying he was certain the photos were genuine and had not been doctored in any manner.
The trial will resume to the more conventional setting of the courthouse on Tuesday.
