🔗 Share this article

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

Toyah Cordingley was multiple times stabbed with a bladed weapon and placed in a sandy resting place with little or no chance of survival, the jury has heard.

The remains were discovered 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 Inspection to Crime Scene

The jury of 10 men and two women plus three alternates attended the beach along with the presiding officer and legal counsel on Monday morning local time.

In a nod to the hot climate and sweltering heat, the judge wore a T-shirt, sport shorts and sneakers rather than a wig and robes.

Both the lead prosecution and defense attorneys chose casual shirts, bottoms and baseball caps.

Scene Particulars

The jurors were led around three-quarters of a mile north up the sand to observe where Ms Cordingley's body were discovered.

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

The visit was intended to help the jurors become acquainted with important sites in the case and no official evidence was presented.

Context of the Case

Previously, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's body were discovered, Mr Singh flew from Australia to India – abandoning his wife, family and relatives.

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

State Argument

It is alleged that Mr Singh, who was employed in healthcare in the community of Innisfail, near Cairns, had a confrontation with Ms Cordingley.

The victim was discovered wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions absent.

Those items were taken by the assailant to conceal evidence, prosecutors allege.

Her dog, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had taken to the beach for a stroll, was found secured to a post hidden in bushland about 100 feet from the burial site.

No murder weapon was found, and no one have been identified.

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

This will include evidence that DNA recovered from a object at the scene was extremely more probable to have originated from Mr Singh than a unrelated individual of the public.

The jury has previously been told testimony indicating that Ms Cordingley's phone left the beach after the incident – and that its movements corresponded with those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the accused.

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

Defence Stance

"As the police were finding Toyah's remains, he was arranging... a hurriedly arranged single journey 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 the lawyer portrayed his defendant as a "placid" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "incorrect location at the unfortunate moment."

He also hinted at testimony to come later in the trial that, after his apprehension, Mr Singh informed 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 suspicion.

Additional Testimony

Ms Cordingley's partner, Marco Heidenreich, whom authorities quickly ruled out as a person of interest, was one who gave evidence previously.

The trial heard he was an immediate person of interest – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was involved in his partner's vanishing, even before her body were discovered.

Photographs depicting the witness on a hike with a friend on the day Ms Cordingley disappeared have been shown to the jury, with an specialist saying he was certain the photos were genuine and had not been doctored in any manner.

The trial will return to the standard environment of the courthouse on the next day.