Jury in High-Profile Australian Murder Case Tours Shoreline At Which Victim Was Found
Jurors involved in a widely publicized Queensland murder trial have traveled to the remote beach where the young woman was located.
The 24-year-old victim was multiple times attacked with a bladed weapon and buried in a shallow resting place with minimal hope of surviving, the jury has been told.
Her body were discovered by a family member the next 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 northern Australia.
Jury Inspection to Beach
The jury of 12 individuals plus several back-up jurors visited the location along with the judge and barristers on Monday morning in Queensland.
In a nod to the tropical conditions and sweltering heat, Justice Lincoln Crowley opted for a T-shirt, sport shorts and sneakers rather than traditional court attire.
Both the prosecuting and defense attorneys selected casual shirts, shorts and headwear.
Location Details
The court members were guided around 1.2km along the beach to see where Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered.
Earlier, as they arrived by bus, several red and white cones showed where the vehicle had been left.
The trip was intended to help the jurors become acquainted with key locations in the case and no official evidence was presented.
Context of the Trial
Previously, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's body were discovered, the accused departed from Australia to India – abandoning his wife, three children and parents.
He was not heard from until he was apprehended four years later, the state said.
State Case
It is claimed that Mr Singh, who was working as a nurse in the community of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.
The pharmacy worker was found wearing a swimwear, with all her other clothes and belongings missing.
Those objects were taken by the killer to conceal evidence, prosecutors allege.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a stroll, was found tied up to a post concealed in shrubland about 100 feet from the burial site.
No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no one have been identified.
But the prosecution says the evidence – though indirect – was made up of findings that pointed to Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
This will include testimony that genetic material recovered from a object at the location was 3.8 billion times more probable to have come from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the population.
The jury has previously been told evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's mobile device departed the beach after the killing – and that its travel matched those of a blue Alfa Romeo belonging to the defendant.
Mr Singh's quick exit from Australia also suggested his guilt, the state has argued.
Defence Position
"As the police were discovering Toyah's body, he was arranging... a hurriedly arranged single journey back to India," Mr Crane said last week as he began arguments.
The defense is has not present any evidence, but in his opening address, the defense attorney the lawyer described his defendant as a "calm" and "caring" man, who was in the "wrong place at the unfortunate moment."
He also foreshadowed testimony to come later in the trial that, after his arrest, Mr Singh told an plainclothes agent he had seen two masked men assault Ms Cordingley and then had run away in terror – something he said was his "biggest mistake."
Mr McGuire has also said he will give evidence about individuals "both known and unknown" who should come under investigation.
Additional Testimony
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, the witness, whom police excluded as a person of interest, was one who gave evidence last week.
The trial heard he was an initial police suspect – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's parent about whether he was implicated in his girlfriend's vanishing, even before her remains were found.
Images showing the witness on a walk with a friend on the day Ms Cordingley went missing have been presented to the court, with an expert saying he was confident the pictures were genuine and had not been altered in any way.
The case will resume to the standard environment of the courthouse on Tuesday.