Jury in High-Profile Australian Homicide Case Visits Shoreline Where Deceased Was Discovered
Members of the jury involved in a widely publicized Queensland murder trial have been taken to the isolated beach where the victim was discovered.
The 24-year-old victim was multiple times stabbed with a sharp object and buried in a sandy resting place with little or no hope of surviving, the court has been told.
The remains were found by a family member the next day on Wangetti Beach – a stretch of coastline between the popular destinations of Cairns and Port Douglas.
The accused, 41, has pleaded not guilty to murdering Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.
Court Inspection to Crime Scene
The panel of 12 individuals plus three back-up jurors visited the location along with the judge and legal counsel on the start of the week in Queensland.
In a acknowledgment of the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore 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.
Scene Details
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, several markers showed where the victim's car had been parked.
The trip was designed to help the jurors become acquainted with important sites in the case and no official evidence was presented.
Background of the Trial
Previously, the court was informed that the day after Ms Cordingley's body were found, the accused departed from Australia to India – abandoning his spouse, family and parents.
He was out of contact until he was apprehended four years later, the prosecution said.
State Argument
It is alleged that Mr Singh, who was employed in healthcare in the town of Innisfail, near Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.
The victim was discovered wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and belongings missing.
Those items were taken by the assailant to conceal evidence, prosecutors contend.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a stroll, was found tied up to a tree hidden in bushland about 100 feet from the grave.
No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no one have been found.
But the prosecution says the evidence – though indirect – was comprised proof that indicated Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
This will involve testimony that DNA recovered from a stick at the scene was 3.8 billion times more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the public.
The jury has already heard evidence indicating that Ms Cordingley's phone left the beach after the incident – and that its travel matched those of a vehicle belonging to the accused.
Mr Singh's quick exit from Australia also suggested his involvement, the state has argued.
Defence Stance
"While authorities were discovering Toyah's body, he was arranging... a rushed single journey back to India," the prosecutor said last week as he began arguments.
The defense is yet to present any evidence, but in his opening address, Mr Singh's barrister Greg McGuire portrayed his defendant as a "calm" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "wrong place at the wrong time."
He also hinted at testimony to come later in the trial that, after his apprehension, Mr Singh informed an undercover officer he had witnessed two masked men assault Ms Cordingley and then had run away 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 investigation.
Additional Testimony
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, the witness, whom authorities excluded as a person of interest, was one who testified previously.
The trial heard he was an immediate police suspect – and that he had faced questions from Ms Cordingley's parent about whether he was implicated in his partner's vanishing, even before her body were found.
Photographs depicting the witness on a walk with a friend on the date Ms Cordingley went missing have been shown to the court, with an expert saying he was certain the pictures were genuine and had not been altered in any manner.
The trial will return to the more conventional setting of the courthouse on Tuesday.