🔗 Share this article

Members of the jury overseeing a widely publicized Australian murder trial have traveled to the remote beach where the victim was discovered.

Toyah Cordingley was repeatedly attacked with a bladed weapon and placed in a shallow grave with little or no chance of survival, the court has heard.

Her body were found by a family member the next day on Wangetti Beach – a stretch of shoreline between the popular destinations of Cairns and Port Douglas.

Rajwinder Singh, 41, denies killing Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.

Court Inspection to Crime Scene

The jury of 12 individuals plus several back-up jurors attended the location along with the judge and legal counsel on Monday morning in Queensland.

In a nod to the tropical conditions and sweltering heat, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a T-shirt, sport shorts and sneakers rather than a wig and robes.

Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers selected casual shirts, shorts and baseball caps.

Scene Particulars

The jurors were guided around three-quarters of a mile along the beach to see where Ms Cordingley's body were uncovered.

Earlier, as they arrived by bus, several markers indicated where the vehicle had been parked.

The trip was designed to help the jurors become acquainted with important sites in the trial and no official evidence was given.

Background of the Trial

Previously, the court was informed that the day after Ms Cordingley's remains were found, Mr Singh flew from Australia to India – leaving behind his spouse, family and relatives.

He was out of contact until he was apprehended years after, the prosecution said.

State Case

It is claimed that the defendant, who was working as a nurse in the community of Innisfail, near Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.

The pharmacy worker was discovered wearing a bikini, with her attire and most of her possessions missing.

Those objects were removed by the assailant to avoid detection, the prosecution contend.

Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a walk, was found tied up to a tree hidden in shrubland about 30 metres from the grave.

The weapon was found, and no eyewitnesses have been identified.

But the state says the evidence – though circumstantial – was made up of findings that pointed to Mr Singh "and eliminated others."

This will involve testimony 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 population.

The court has previously been told evidence suggesting that Ms Cordingley's phone left the scene after the killing – and that its movements matched those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the defendant.

Mr Singh's quick exit from Australia also suggested his guilt, the state has claimed.

Defence Stance

"As the police were discovering Toyah's body, he was organizing... a rushed one way trip back to India," Mr Crane said previously as he opened his case.

The defense is yet to 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 "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 witnessed assailants assault Ms Cordingley and then had run away in terror – something he said was his "gravest error."

The defense attorney has also said he will give evidence about other people "both known and unknown" who should come under investigation.

Additional Testimony

Ms Cordingley's partner, the witness, whom police excluded as a person of interest, was among those who testified previously.

The trial was informed he was an initial police suspect – and that he had faced questions from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was implicated in his girlfriend's vanishing, prior to her body were discovered.

Images depicting 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 photos were authentic and had not been doctored in any way.

The case will resume to the more conventional setting of the courtroom on Tuesday.