🔗 Share this article

Members of the jury overseeing a widely publicized Queensland murder trial have been taken to the isolated beach where the young woman was located.

Toyah Cordingley was repeatedly stabbed with a bladed weapon and placed in a shallow resting place with little or no chance of survival, the jury has been told.

The remains were discovered by a family member the next day on Wangetti Beach – a stretch of coastline between the popular destinations of Cairns and Port Douglas.

The accused, 41, has pleaded not guilty to killing Ms Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in northern Australia.

Court Inspection to Beach

The jury of 10 men and two women plus several back-up jurors visited the location along with the judge and barristers on the start of the week local time.

In a nod to the hot climate and temperatures above 30C, the judge opted for a T-shirt, athletic wear and sneakers rather than traditional court attire.

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

Scene Particulars

The jurors were guided around 1.2km along the beach to see where Ms Cordingley's body were discovered.

Upon arrival, as they arrived by bus, four red and white cones showed where the victim's car had been left.

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

Context of the Trial

Last week, the court heard that the day after Ms Cordingley's remains were found, the accused flew from Australia to India – abandoning his spouse, family and relatives.

He was out of contact until he was arrested four years later, the prosecution 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 bikini, with all her other clothes and belongings missing.

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

Her pet, Indie, which Ms Cordingley had brought along for a walk, was found secured to a tree concealed in shrubland about 100 feet from the grave.

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

But the state says the evidence – though circumstantial – was made up of proof that indicated Mr Singh "excluding other suspects."

This will involve evidence that genetic material obtained from a object at the scene 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 beach 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 pointed to his guilt, the prosecution has argued.

Defense Position

"While authorities were finding Toyah's body, he was organizing... a rushed single journey back to India," Mr Crane said last week as he began arguments.

The defence is yet to provided testimony, but in his opening address, the defense attorney Greg McGuire described his defendant as a "calm" and "caring" man, who was in the "wrong place at the unfortunate moment."

He also hinted at testimony to come later in the trial that, after his arrest, Mr Singh told an plainclothes agent he had seen assailants attack Ms Cordingley and then had run away in fear – something he said was his "biggest mistake."

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

Additional Evidence

Ms Cordingley's partner, the witness, whom police quickly ruled out as a person of interest, was among those who testified previously.

The court heard he was an immediate person of interest – and that he had faced questions from Ms Cordingley's parent about whether he was implicated in his partner's vanishing, prior to her body were found.

Photographs showing Mr Heidenreich on a walk with a companion on the day Ms Cordingley disappeared have been shown to the court, with an specialist saying he was confident the photos were genuine and had not been doctored in any way.

The case will return to the standard environment of the courthouse on Tuesday.