Overview
- Rajwinder Singh has pleaded not guilty to the 2018 killing of Toyah Cordingley, with a jury empanelled for a trial expected to run about three weeks in the Supreme Court in Cairns.
- Toyah Cordingley’s father testified about discovering his daughter’s body on Wangetti Beach the morning after she disappeared, with her dog later found tied to a tree unharmed.
- The court heard that partial DNA from a stick near the burial site was reported to be 3.8 billion times more likely to have come from Singh than from an unrelated member of the public.
- Prosecutors outlined phone-tower data showing gaps in activity, atypical vehicle movements including travel near bodies of water, and an allegation that Cordingley’s phone was removed from the scene before Singh left for India.
- The defence argues Singh was in the wrong place at the wrong time, highlights other men who frequented the area with large knives, and points to Singh’s recorded claim that he fled after witnessing an attack; no murder weapon has been found.