Panel of Jurors in Prominent Down Under Homicide Trial Tours Shoreline Where Deceased Was Discovered

Jurors involved in a widely publicized Queensland murder trial have traveled to the isolated shore where the young woman was located.

Toyah Cordingley was repeatedly stabbed with a sharp object and buried in a shallow grave with little or no chance of survival, the court has heard.

The remains 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.

The accused, 41, denies murdering Ms Cordingley on a weekend in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.

Jury Inspection to Crime Scene

The panel of 10 men and two women plus three alternates attended the beach along with the judge and legal counsel on the start of the week local time.

In a acknowledgment of the hot climate and sweltering heat, the judge opted for a T-shirt, athletic wear and trainers rather than traditional court attire.

Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers selected casual shirts, shorts and headwear.

Scene Particulars

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

Upon arrival, as they arrived by bus, several markers indicated where the victim's car had been left.

The visit was designed to help the panel become familiar with key locations in the case and no testimony was given.

Context of the Case

Last week, the Cairns Supreme Court was informed that the day after Ms Cordingley's remains were found, the accused flew from Australia to India – abandoning his wife, three children and relatives.

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

State Argument

It is claimed that Mr Singh, who was working as a nurse in the town 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 removed by the assailant to avoid detection, prosecutors contend.

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

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

But the state says the crown's case – though circumstantial – was made up of findings that indicated Mr Singh "and eliminated others."

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

The jury has already heard testimony indicating that Ms Cordingley's phone left the scene after the incident – 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 argued.

Defense Position

"As the police were finding Toyah's body, he was arranging... a rushed single journey back to India," the prosecutor said last week as he began arguments.

The defence is yet to present any evidence, but in his initial statement, the defense attorney the lawyer portrayed his defendant as a "calm" and "compassionate" man, who was in the "incorrect location at the wrong time."

He also foreshadowed evidence to come later in the trial that, after his arrest, Mr Singh told an plainclothes agent he had witnessed assailants assault Ms Cordingley and then had fled in fear – something he said was his "biggest mistake."

The defense attorney has also said he will give evidence about other people "both known and unknown" who should come under investigation.

Additional Evidence

Ms Cordingley's partner, Marco Heidenreich, whom police excluded as a possible suspect, was among those who gave evidence last week.

The court was informed he was an initial person of interest – and that he had been interrogated from Ms Cordingley's father about whether he was implicated in his girlfriend's vanishing, prior to her remains were discovered.

Photographs showing Mr Heidenreich on a walk with a friend on the date Ms Cordingley disappeared have been presented to the court, with an specialist saying he was certain the pictures were authentic and had not been altered in any way.

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