Jury in High-Profile Australian Homicide Trial Tours Shoreline At Which Deceased Was Found
Jurors involved in a widely publicized Australian homicide case have been taken to the remote beach where the victim was located.
The 24-year-old victim was multiple times stabbed with a sharp object and buried in a sandy resting place with little or no chance of survival, the court has been told.
Her body were found by her father the following day on Wangetti Beach – a stretch of coastline nestled between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.
The accused, 41, denies killing Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.
Court Visit to Crime Scene
The jury of 10 men and two women plus three alternates visited the location along with the judge and barristers on the start of the week in Queensland.
In a nod to the hot climate and sweltering heat, the judge wore a T-shirt, sport shorts and sneakers rather than traditional court attire.
Both the prosecuting and defence barristers selected polo shirts, bottoms and baseball caps.
Scene Particulars
The court members were led around 1.2km along the beach to see where Ms Cordingley's body were uncovered.
Earlier, as they traveled to the site, four red and white cones indicated where the victim's car had been parked.
The trip was designed to help the jurors become familiar with important sites in the trial and no testimony was given.
Context of the Trial
Last week, the court was informed that the day after Ms Cordingley's body were found, the accused departed from Australia to India – abandoning his wife, family and parents.
He was out of contact until he was arrested years after, the state said.
State Case
It is alleged that the defendant, who was employed in healthcare in the town of Innisfail, south of Cairns, had a altercation with Ms Cordingley.
The victim was discovered wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions absent.
Those objects were taken by the assailant to avoid detection, prosecutors contend.
Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a walk, was found secured to a post concealed in bushland about 30 metres from the burial site.
No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no one have been found.
But the state says the crown's case – though circumstantial – was made up of findings that indicated Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."
This will involve testimony that genetic material obtained from a stick at the location was extremely more probable to have originated from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the public.
The court has previously been told testimony indicating that Ms Cordingley's phone departed the scene after the killing – and that its movements 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
"While authorities were discovering Toyah's remains, he was organizing... a rushed one way trip back to India," Mr Crane said previously as he began arguments.
The defence is yet to provided testimony, but in his opening address, the defense attorney Greg McGuire described his client as a "placid" and "caring" man, who was in the "wrong place at the wrong time."
He also hinted at evidence to come later in the trial that, after his apprehension, Mr Singh informed an plainclothes agent he had witnessed two masked men attack Ms Cordingley and then had fled in terror – something he said was his "gravest error."
Mr McGuire has also said he will testify about other people "both known and unknown" who should come under suspicion.
Further Testimony
Ms Cordingley's partner, the witness, whom police quickly ruled out as a person of interest, was one who testified previously.
The trial was informed he was an initial 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 remains were found.
Images showing the witness on a hike with a companion on the day Ms Cordingley went missing have been presented to the jury, with an expert saying he was certain the photos were authentic and had not been altered in any manner.
The case will resume to the more conventional setting of the courtroom on the next day.
