🔗 Share this article

Members of the jury overseeing a widely publicized Australian homicide case have been taken to the isolated beach where the victim was discovered.

The 24-year-old victim was multiple times attacked with a sharp object and placed in a sandy grave with little or no hope of surviving, the jury has heard.

Her body were discovered by a family member the next 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 Visit to Crime Scene

The jury of 10 men and two women plus several alternates visited the location along with the judge and barristers on Monday morning in Queensland.

In a acknowledgment of the tropical conditions and sweltering heat, the judge wore a T-shirt, athletic wear and trainers rather than traditional court attire.

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

Location 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 traveled to the site, four markers indicated where the vehicle had been left.

The visit was designed to help the jurors become familiar with key locations in the case and no official evidence was presented.

Background of the Case

Last week, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the following day Ms Cordingley's remains were discovered, the accused departed from Australia to India – abandoning his wife, family and relatives.

He was not heard from until he was arrested four years later, the state said.

Prosecution Case

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

The pharmacy worker was found wearing a swimwear, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions missing.

Those objects were removed by the assailant to conceal evidence, the prosecution allege.

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

The weapon was ever recovered, and no one have been identified.

But the state says the evidence – though indirect – was comprised proof that indicated Mr Singh "and eliminated others."

This will involve evidence that DNA recovered from a stick at the scene was 3.8 billion times more likely to have originated from Mr Singh than a random member of the public.

The jury has previously been told testimony indicating that Ms Cordingley's mobile device departed the scene after the incident – and that its movements corresponded with those of a vehicle owned by the defendant.

Mr Singh's sudden departure from Australia also suggested his guilt, the state has argued.

Defence Position

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

The defense is has not present any evidence, but in his opening address, the defense attorney Greg McGuire portrayed his defendant as a "placid" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "incorrect location at the unfortunate moment."

He also foreshadowed evidence to come later in the trial that, after his arrest, Mr Singh informed an undercover officer he had witnessed two masked men assault Ms Cordingley and then had run away in terror – something he said was his "biggest mistake."

The defense attorney has also said he will give evidence about other people "identified and unidentified" who should come under suspicion.

Further Testimony

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

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 involved in his partner's vanishing, even before her body were discovered.

Photographs showing Mr Heidenreich on a walk with a companion on the date Ms Cordingley went missing have been presented to the jury, with an specialist saying he was certain the photos were genuine and had not been altered in any manner.

The trial will resume to the more conventional setting of the courtroom on the next day.