Jury in Prominent Australian Murder Trial Visits Beach Where Victim Was Discovered
Members of the jury overseeing a high-profile Australian murder trial have traveled to the remote shore where the victim was located.
The 24-year-old victim was multiple times stabbed with a sharp object and placed in a shallow resting place with minimal hope of surviving, the court has heard.
The remains were found by a family member the next day on Wangetti Beach – a section of shoreline 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.
Court Inspection to Beach
The panel of 10 men and two women plus three alternates attended the location along with the judge and barristers on Monday morning in Queensland.
In a acknowledgment of the hot climate and temperatures above 30C, the judge opted for a casual top, athletic wear and sneakers rather than a wig and robes.
Both the lead prosecution and defense attorneys chose casual shirts, bottoms and headwear.
Location Particulars
The court members were guided around three-quarters of a mile north up the sand to see where Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered.
Earlier, as they arrived by bus, four red and white cones showed where the victim's car had been parked.
The visit was designed to help the jurors become familiar with key locations in the case and no official evidence was presented.
Context of the Trial
Last week, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the following day Ms Cordingley's body were discovered, Mr Singh flew from Australia to India – abandoning his wife, three children and parents.
He was not heard from until he was apprehended four years later, the prosecution said.
Prosecution Argument
It is alleged that the defendant, who was employed in healthcare in the town of Innisfail, near Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley.
The pharmacy worker was discovered wearing a swimwear, with all her other clothes and belongings absent.
Those items were taken by the assailant to avoid detection, the prosecution contend.
Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a walk, was found secured to a post concealed in shrubland about 100 feet from the grave.
The weapon was ever recovered, and no one have been found.
But the prosecution says the evidence – though circumstantial – was comprised proof that pointed to Mr Singh "and eliminated others."
This will involve testimony that genetic material obtained from a stick at the location was 3.8 billion times more probable to have originated from Mr Singh than a random member of the population.
The jury has already heard evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's phone left the scene after the killing – and that its travel 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 Stance
"While authorities were finding Toyah's body, he was organizing... a rushed single journey back to India," the prosecutor said previously as he began arguments.
The defense is has not provided testimony, but in his opening address, Mr Singh's barrister the lawyer portrayed his defendant as a "calm" and "caring" man, who was in the "wrong place at the unfortunate moment."
He also hinted at testimony to come later in the trial that, after his arrest, Mr Singh informed an plainclothes agent he had witnessed 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 individuals "identified and unidentified" who should come under investigation.
Additional Evidence
Ms Cordingley's partner, the witness, whom authorities excluded as a person of interest, was among those who testified previously.
The trial heard he was an immediate person of interest – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's parent about whether he was involved in his girlfriend's vanishing, even before her body were found.
Photographs depicting the witness on a walk with a companion on the day Ms Cordingley went missing have been shown to the court, with an expert saying he was certain the photos were authentic and had not been doctored in any way.
The case will return to the more conventional setting of the courthouse on Tuesday.
