Panel of Jurors in Prominent Australian Homicide Case Visits Shoreline Where Deceased Was Discovered
Jurors overseeing a high-profile Queensland homicide case have traveled to the isolated shore where the victim was located.
The 24-year-old victim was multiple times stabbed with a bladed weapon and buried in a sandy grave with minimal hope of surviving, the court has been told.
The remains were discovered by a family member the next day on Wangetti Beach – a section of coastline between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.
The accused, 41, denies killing Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.
Court Visit to Beach
The panel of 12 individuals plus three alternates visited the location along with the presiding officer and legal counsel on the start of the week in Queensland.
In a acknowledgment of the hot climate and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley opted for a T-shirt, sport shorts and sneakers rather than a wig and robes.
Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers selected polo shirts, bottoms and baseball caps.
Scene Particulars
The court members were guided around 1.2km along the beach to observe where Ms Cordingley's body were discovered.
Earlier, as they arrived by bus, several red and white cones showed where the victim's car had been left.
The trip was intended to help the jurors become familiar with important sites in the trial and no official evidence was presented.
Context of the Case
Previously, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the following day Ms Cordingley's remains were found, Mr Singh flew from Australia to India – abandoning his spouse, three children and relatives.
He was out of contact until he was apprehended years after, the prosecution said.
Prosecution Argument
It is claimed that Mr Singh, who was employed in healthcare in the community of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.
The victim was found wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions absent.
Those objects were removed by the assailant to conceal evidence, the prosecution allege.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a walk, was found secured to a tree hidden in bushland about 100 feet from the burial site.
No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no eyewitnesses have been identified.
But the prosecution says the crown's case – though circumstantial – was made up of proof that pointed to Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
This will include testimony that DNA obtained from a stick at the location was 3.8 billion times more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a random member of the population.
The court has previously been told testimony indicating that Ms Cordingley's mobile device departed the beach after the killing – and that its travel matched those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the accused.
Mr Singh's quick exit from Australia also suggested his guilt, the state 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 has not present any evidence, but in his initial statement, the defense attorney the lawyer portrayed his defendant as a "placid" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "incorrect location at the wrong time."
He also hinted at evidence to come later in the trial that, after his apprehension, Mr Singh told an plainclothes agent he had seen assailants attack Ms Cordingley and then had fled in fear – something he said was his "biggest mistake."
The defense attorney has also said he will testify about other people "both known and unknown" who should come under suspicion.
Further Evidence
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom police quickly ruled out as a person of interest, was one who testified last week.
The trial heard he was an immediate person of interest – and that he had been interrogated 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 walk with a companion on the day Ms Cordingley disappeared 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 trial will return to the standard environment of the courthouse on Tuesday.