Jury in Prominent Down Under Homicide Trial Tours Beach Where Deceased Was Discovered
Jurors overseeing a widely publicized Australian homicide case have been taken to the isolated beach where the young woman was discovered.
The 24-year-old victim was repeatedly stabbed with a sharp object and placed in a shallow resting place with little or no chance of survival, the court has heard.
The remains were found by her father the next day on Wangetti Beach – a stretch of shoreline between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.
The accused, 41, has pleaded not guilty to killing Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.
Court Visit to Crime Scene
The jury of 12 individuals plus several alternates attended the beach along with the presiding officer and legal counsel on Monday morning local time.
In a acknowledgment of the tropical conditions and sweltering heat, the judge wore a T-shirt, sport shorts and trainers rather than a wig and robes.
Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers selected casual shirts, bottoms and headwear.
Location Particulars
The jurors were guided around 1.2km north up the sand to observe where Ms Cordingley's remains were uncovered.
Earlier, as they traveled to the site, several red and white cones 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 testimony was presented.
Background of the Trial
Last week, the court was informed that the following day Ms Cordingley's body were found, the accused flew from Australia to India – leaving behind his spouse, family and relatives.
He was not heard from until he was apprehended years after, the state said.
State Case
It is claimed that the defendant, 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 bikini, with all her other clothes and belongings absent.
Those items were removed by the assailant to avoid detection, prosecutors allege.
Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a walk, was found secured to a tree concealed in shrubland about 30 metres from the burial site.
The weapon was ever recovered, and no eyewitnesses have been found.
But the prosecution says the evidence – though indirect – was comprised proof that indicated Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
This will include evidence that DNA recovered from a object at the scene was 3.8 billion times more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the population.
The jury has previously been told testimony indicating 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 pointed to his guilt, the prosecution has claimed.
Defense Position
"As the police were finding Toyah's remains, he was arranging... a rushed single journey back to India," the prosecutor said last week as he opened his case.
The defence is has not present any evidence, but in his opening address, the defense attorney the lawyer portrayed his defendant as a "placid" and "caring" man, who was in the "wrong place at the unfortunate moment."
He also foreshadowed evidence to come later in the trial that, after his arrest, Mr Singh told an undercover officer he had witnessed assailants attack Ms Cordingley and then had fled in terror – something he said was his "biggest mistake."
Mr McGuire has also said he will give evidence about other people "identified and unidentified" who should come under investigation.
Further Evidence
Ms Cordingley's boyfriend at the time, Marco Heidenreich, whom police excluded as a possible suspect, was among those who gave evidence last week.
The court was informed he was an immediate police suspect – and that he had faced questions from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was implicated in his partner's disappearance, even before her body were found.
Images depicting Mr Heidenreich on a hike with a friend on the day Ms Cordingley disappeared have been presented to the jury, with an expert saying he was certain the pictures were genuine and had not been altered in any manner.
The case will return to the more conventional setting of the courthouse on the next day.