Jury in Prominent Down Under Murder Trial Tours Shoreline At Which Victim Was Found
Members of the jury overseeing a widely publicized Australian murder trial have been taken to the isolated beach where the young woman was discovered.
Toyah Cordingley was repeatedly attacked with a bladed weapon and placed in a sandy grave with little or no hope of surviving, the court has heard.
The remains were discovered by a family member the following day on Wangetti Beach – a stretch of coastline between the popular destinations of Cairns and Port Douglas.
The accused, 41, denies murdering Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.
Court Visit to Crime Scene
The panel of 12 individuals plus several alternates visited the location along with the judge and barristers on Monday morning local time.
In a acknowledgment of the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, the judge opted for a T-shirt, athletic wear and sneakers rather than a wig and robes.
Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers chose polo shirts, bottoms and baseball caps.
Scene Details
The court members were guided around 1.2km along the beach to observe where Ms Cordingley's remains were uncovered.
Earlier, as they traveled to the site, several markers indicated where the victim's car had been left.
The trip was designed to help the panel become familiar with key locations in the trial and no testimony was presented.
Context of the Case
Last week, the court was informed that the day after Ms Cordingley's body were discovered, Mr Singh flew from Australia to India – leaving behind his spouse, three children and parents.
He was not heard from until he was apprehended four years later, the prosecution said.
State Argument
It is claimed that Mr Singh, who was working as a nurse in the community of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley.
The pharmacy worker was discovered wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and belongings missing.
Those items were removed by the assailant to avoid detection, the prosecution allege.
Her dog, 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.
The weapon was found, and no eyewitnesses have been found.
But the prosecution says the evidence – though circumstantial – was made up of proof that indicated Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
This will involve evidence that genetic material recovered from a stick at the location was extremely more probable to have originated from Mr Singh than a random member of the population.
The jury has previously been told testimony suggesting that Ms Cordingley's mobile device left the beach after the killing – and that its travel corresponded with those of a vehicle owned by the accused.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also pointed to his involvement, the state has argued.
Defense Stance
"While authorities were finding Toyah's body, he was arranging... a rushed one way trip back to India," Mr Crane said last week as he opened his case.
The defense is has not provided testimony, but in his opening address, Mr Singh's barrister the lawyer described his client as a "placid" and "caring" man, who was in the "incorrect location at the wrong time."
He also foreshadowed evidence to come later in the trial that, after his arrest, Mr Singh told an plainclothes agent he had seen assailants 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 "identified and unidentified" who should come under investigation.
Further Testimony
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, the witness, whom police quickly ruled out as a person of interest, was among those who testified previously.
The trial was informed he was an initial person of interest – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's parent about whether he was implicated in his partner's vanishing, prior to her body were discovered.
Images showing the witness on a hike with a companion on the date Ms Cordingley disappeared have been shown to the court, with an specialist saying he was confident the pictures were authentic and had not been doctored in any manner.
The trial will resume to the more conventional setting of the courthouse on the next day.
