Jury in Prominent Australian Homicide Case Tours Beach Where Deceased Was Discovered
Jurors involved in a widely publicized Australian homicide case have been taken to the remote beach where the young woman was discovered.
Toyah Cordingley was multiple times stabbed with a sharp object and buried in a sandy grave with minimal hope of surviving, the court has heard.
Her body were found by a family member the next day on Wangetti Beach – a section of coastline between the popular destinations of Cairns and Port Douglas.
The accused, 41, denies killing Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.
Jury Visit to Crime Scene
The panel of 10 men and two women plus three back-up jurors visited the beach along with the judge and legal counsel on Monday morning in Queensland.
In a acknowledgment of the hot climate and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley opted for a casual top, athletic wear and trainers rather than traditional court attire.
Both the lead prosecution and defense attorneys selected polo shirts, bottoms and baseball caps.
Location Details
The jurors were guided around 1.2km along the beach to observe where Ms Cordingley's body were discovered.
Earlier, as they traveled to the site, four markers indicated where the vehicle had been left.
The trip was intended to help the panel become acquainted with important sites in the case and no official evidence was given.
Background of the Case
Previously, the Cairns Supreme Court was informed that the day after Ms Cordingley's body were found, Mr Singh departed from Australia to India – abandoning his wife, family and parents.
He was out of contact until he was apprehended years after, the prosecution said.
Prosecution Argument
It is alleged that Mr Singh, who was employed in healthcare in the community of Innisfail, near Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley.
The pharmacy worker was found wearing a swimwear, with her attire and belongings absent.
Those items were removed by the killer to avoid detection, prosecutors allege.
Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a walk, was found tied up to a tree concealed in bushland about 100 feet from the grave.
No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no eyewitnesses have been identified.
But the state says the evidence – though indirect – was made up of findings that pointed to Mr Singh "and eliminated others."
This will involve evidence that DNA obtained from a stick at the scene was extremely more probable to have come from Mr Singh than a random member of the public.
The jury has already heard testimony suggesting that Ms Cordingley's phone departed the beach after the incident – and that its travel matched those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the accused.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also suggested his involvement, the state has argued.
Defence Position
"As the police were finding Toyah's body, he was organizing... a hurriedly arranged single journey back to India," the prosecutor said previously as he opened his case.
The defence is yet to provided testimony, but in his initial statement, the defense attorney Greg McGuire portrayed his defendant as a "calm" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "wrong place at the unfortunate moment."
He also foreshadowed evidence to come later in the trial that, after his apprehension, Mr Singh informed an plainclothes agent he had witnessed two masked men attack Ms Cordingley and then had run away in fear – something he said was his "biggest mistake."
The defense attorney has also said he will give evidence about other people "both known and unknown" who should come under investigation.
Additional Evidence
Ms Cordingley's partner, the witness, whom police quickly ruled out as a possible suspect, was one who gave evidence previously.
The trial heard he was an initial police suspect – and that he had faced questions from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was involved in his girlfriend's disappearance, prior to her remains were found.
Photographs showing Mr Heidenreich on a hike with a companion on the day Ms Cordingley went missing have been presented to the jury, with an specialist saying he was confident the pictures were genuine and had not been doctored in any way.
The case will resume to the standard environment of the courtroom on the next day.
