Jury retiring to consider verdict in Toyah Cordingley murder trial
Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Queensland jury in the Toyah Cordingley murder trial is all set to start considering its verdict.
All witnesses have appeared before the court during the past three weeks, the defence and prosecutors have given their final addresses, and trial judge Justice James Henry has delivered his concluding speech to the jury.
Rajwinder Singh, 40, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of the 24-year-old former Paws and Claws volunteer on Sunday, October 21, 2018, declined to answer questions from Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane in the final stages of the trial.
Forensic scientists earlier this week told the court Mr Singh’s DNA was 3.7 billion times more likely than another person to be on a stick found partially protruding from Ms Cordingley’s burial site in sand dunes at Wangetti Beach, and 310 times more likely than any other person to have been found under Ms Cordingley’s fingernails.
In his closing address, Crown prosecutor Crane told the court Mr Singh’s “DNA was in her grave”.
He also pointed out the “unison” between the movements of Mr Singh in his distinct blue Alpha Romeo and Ms Cordingley’s phone on the afternoon of the murder, as well as his “drastic” actions in leaving behind his family to return to India in the following days.
“He knew he was wanted for murder and he did not come back,” Mr Crane said.
Mr Crane said a story told by Mr Singh that he saw a masked man kill Ms Cordingley was “made up”.
Earlier in the week, the jury was played a secret recording made by an undercover police officer posing as a prisoner in the Cairns watch-house in March, 2023, after Mr Singh had been deported back to Australia.
Mr Singh was recorded telling the officer he fled the murder scene after witnessing another person kill Ms Cordingley.
"I did not see their faces, they were covered,” he said.
But Mr Crane said Mr Singh’s "meandering" journey back to his home from Wangetti on the day of the murder showed he was “not a man who was scared, fleeing” - he even went past his house to visit Flying Fish Point.
However, in the final summary of Defence Counsel Angus Edwards KC, he said that, unless the prosecution has disproven beyond a reasonable doubt any other possibilities, Mr Singh must be found not guilty.
The prosecution’s evidence fell “woefully short of reasonable doubt”, he said, and there was a chance somebody else may have committed the murder.
This included Ms Cordingley’s boyfriend Marco Heidenreich, as well as two people who have appeared before the court in the past three weeks - Tiler Evan McCrea and schoolteacher Remy Fry.
Earlier this week the court heard conflicting evidence about Mr Fry, who said he was visiting his mum and other friends at Wangetti on the day of the murder.
Mr Fry said he spent "three or so hours" socialising with two friends, but one of those people, Peter Lincoln, said Mr Fry did not visit him that afternoon.
Toyah Cordingley was murdered at Wangetti Beach on the afternoon of Sunday, October 21, 2018, between the hours of 3-6pm while walking her dog Indie.
Her parents found the dog tied to a tree and father Troy Cordingley found her body buried in a shallow grave in sand dunes about 14 hours after she was killed.
The final summing up of the case was done by Justice James Henry before the jury retired to consider its verdict.
He told the jury they must consider if the evidence presented during the trial is enough to convict Rajwinder Singh of the murder of Toyah Cordingley, or whether there is the possibility someone else may have done it.
A unanimous verdict is required for Mr Singh to be convicted.
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