Jury in Prominent Australian Homicide Case Tours Shoreline At Which Victim Was Found
Jurors overseeing a widely publicized Australian homicide case have been taken to the isolated shore where the young woman was discovered.
Toyah Cordingley was multiple times attacked with a bladed weapon and buried in a sandy grave with little or no hope of surviving, the court has heard.
Her body were found by a family member the next day on Wangetti Beach – a stretch of coastline between the tourist centres 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 Beach
The panel of 12 individuals plus several back-up jurors visited the location along with the presiding officer and barristers on Monday morning local time.
In a nod to the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley opted for a casual top, athletic wear and sneakers rather than traditional court attire.
Both the prosecuting and defense attorneys selected casual shirts, shorts 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.
Upon arrival, as they arrived by bus, several red and white cones showed where the victim's car had been left.
The visit was designed to help the jurors become familiar with key locations in the trial and no official evidence was presented.
Context of the Case
Previously, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's remains were found, Mr Singh departed from Australia to India – leaving behind his wife, three children and relatives.
He was not heard from until he was apprehended years after, the prosecution said.
Prosecution Case
It is claimed that Mr Singh, who was employed in healthcare in the community of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley.
The victim was discovered wearing a swimwear, with her attire and most of her possessions absent.
Those objects were removed by the killer to avoid detection, the prosecution contend.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a stroll, was found secured to a tree hidden in shrubland about 100 feet from the grave.
No murder weapon was found, and no one have been identified.
But the prosecution says the crown's case – though circumstantial – was made up of findings that indicated Mr Singh "and eliminated others."
This will include evidence that DNA recovered from a stick at the scene was extremely more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a random member of the public.
The court has already heard testimony suggesting that Ms Cordingley's mobile device departed the scene after the incident – and that its movements corresponded with those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the defendant.
Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also suggested his guilt, the state has argued.
Defense Position
"While authorities were finding Toyah's body, he was arranging... a hurriedly arranged one way trip back to India," the prosecutor said previously as he opened his case.
The defence is yet to provided testimony, but in his opening address, the defense attorney the lawyer portrayed his client as a "calm" 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 arrest, Mr Singh told an plainclothes agent he had seen assailants attack Ms Cordingley and then had run away in fear – something he said was his "biggest mistake."
Mr McGuire has also said he will testify about other people "identified and unidentified" who should come under investigation.
Additional Evidence
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom authorities quickly ruled out as a possible suspect, was among those who gave evidence last week.
The trial heard he was an initial person of interest – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was implicated in his partner's disappearance, prior to her remains were discovered.
Images depicting Mr Heidenreich on a hike with a companion on the day Ms Cordingley disappeared have been presented to the jury, with an specialist saying he was confident the pictures were authentic and had not been doctored in any manner.
The case will return to the more conventional setting of the courtroom on the next day.