🔗 Share this article

Jurors involved in a high-profile Queensland murder trial have been taken to the isolated beach where the young woman was located.

Toyah Cordingley was multiple times attacked with a sharp object and buried in a sandy grave with little or no hope of surviving, the court has heard.

The remains were discovered by a family member the following day on Wangetti Beach – a section of shoreline nestled between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.

Rajwinder Singh, 41, denies murdering Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in northern Australia.

Jury Inspection to Crime Scene

The panel of 12 individuals plus several back-up jurors visited the location along with the presiding officer and legal counsel on the start of the week in Queensland.

In a acknowledgment of the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, the judge wore a T-shirt, athletic wear and sneakers rather than a wig and robes.

Both the lead prosecution and defense attorneys selected casual shirts, shorts and baseball caps.

Scene Particulars

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

Earlier, as they arrived by bus, several markers showed where the victim's car had been left.

The visit was intended to help the panel become acquainted with important sites in the trial and no testimony was presented.

Context of the Trial

Previously, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's remains were found, the accused flew from Australia to India – abandoning his spouse, three children and relatives.

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

Prosecution Case

It is claimed that Mr Singh, who was employed in healthcare in the town of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.

The pharmacy worker was discovered wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and belongings missing.

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 stroll, was located secured to a tree concealed in shrubland about 30 metres from the grave.

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

But the prosecution says the crown's case – though circumstantial – was comprised proof that indicated Mr Singh "and eliminated others."

This will involve evidence that DNA obtained from a object at the location was 3.8 billion times more likely to have originated from Mr Singh than a random member of the population.

The court has already heard testimony suggesting that Ms Cordingley's mobile device 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 pointed to his guilt, the state has claimed.

Defence Stance

"As the police were finding Toyah's remains, he was organizing... a hurriedly arranged single journey back to India," Mr Crane said previously as he opened his case.

The defense is yet to present any evidence, but in his initial statement, Mr Singh's barrister Greg McGuire portrayed his client as a "placid" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "wrong place at the wrong time."

He also hinted at evidence to come subsequently that, after his arrest, Mr Singh informed an undercover officer he had witnessed assailants assault Ms Cordingley and then had run away 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 suspicion.

Further Evidence

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

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

Images showing the witness on a walk with a companion on the date Ms Cordingley disappeared have been shown to the jury, with an expert saying he was certain the photos were authentic and had not been doctored in any way.

The trial will resume to the more conventional setting of the courthouse on Tuesday.