The story behind Rajwinder Singh - the man on trial for the murder of Toyah Cordingley

Rajwinder Singh is an Australian-trained nurse, a home-owner, an Indian national, and the owner of a ‘distinctive’ blue Alfa Romeo, one of only three of its kind registered in North Queensland, a jury has heard. He is now on trial for murdering Toyah Cordingley.

Rajwinder Singh, 40, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Toyah Cordingley. Picture: Sketch artist by Julie Haysom

Toyah Cordingley, 24, and Rajwinder Singh, 40, were strangers to one another on the day she was murdered, a court has been told.

A sketch of Mr Singh’s life and family has been presented to the jury in the Cairns Supreme Court during the opening days of his trial, where he has pleaded not guilty to one count of murder.

In October 2018, Mr Singh was a married father of three who lived in a brick house in Innisfail, the court was told.

He was an Australian-trained nurse, a home-owner, an Indian national, and the owner of a ‘distinctive’ blue Alfa Romeo, one of only three of its kind registered in North Queensland.

During his opening address to the jury, Crown Prosecutor Nathan Crane showed the jury three family photographs taken around 2018.

In one of them, a smiling, clean-shaven Mr Singh is holding his then one-year-old son - his youngest child.

Two other photos showed Mr Singh’s eldest - his then 8-year-old daughter, and his middle child, a then 6-year-old son.

Crown prosecution barristers Hannah McNeale and Nathan Crane entering the Cairns Supreme Court for the trial of Rajwinder Singh, 40, who has pleaded not guilty to murder. Picture: Brendan Radke

The court was told his extended family was originally from a regional area of India called Buttar Kalan, and his parents were staying at his house in Innisfail in October 2018.

Mr Singh’s wife, Sukhdeep Kaur, saw him briefly on Monday October 22, 2018, and Mr Singh told her he was would be back the next day.

Instead, he got on a plane to Sydney, then India, the court was told.

“He never returned to her. He never returned to his three children,” said Mr Crane.

“He didn’t return to his employment as a nurse at the Innisfail Hospital. He hardly packed any of his personal things.”

“The next time she will see her husband is when she comes into this courtroom to give evidence in this trial,” Mr Crane said.

Mr Crane said Ms Kaur reported her husband missing at the front counter of Innisfail Police station on the Wednesday.

Mr Crane said Mr Singh made flight bookings for India around 11am on 22 October 2018, and was recorded telling the booking agent he needed a one-way ticket “very urgently as early as possible” because his grandfather was sick.

A nursing colleague in Cairns took him to the Cairns Airport, he contacted his sister in Sydney about staying with her overnight, then flew to India.

On Thursday, he contacted his supervisor at the hospital and told her he would not be returning, and asked for his severance pay to be organised, the court was told.

“He was not seen again until 25 November 2022, when he was found in India and brought back to Australia,” Mr Crane said.

Queensland Police officers and detectives with Rajwinder Singh at Cairns Airport in 2022. Picture: Brendan Radke

Mr Crane said the Crown case against Mr Singh relied on this evidence of “flight”, coupled with circumstantial evidence, including the movements of Ms Singh’s car, Mr Cordingley’s phone, and forensic evidence, including analysis of DNA found at the scene.

“It isn’t that he got on a plane, but that he got on the plane having the opportunity and the presence to have committed the offence with which the crown alleges that he did - leaving all those people behind,” said Mr Crane.

The court was told no murder weapon had been found but, during the course of the investigation, 34 items were taken from Mr Singh’s home for testing in November, including knives.

Samples for DNA were also taken from Ms Cordingley’s fingernails, and driftwood logs and a stick, which was partially buried in Ms Cordingley’s shallow grave.

Mr Crane said that the location of Ms Cordingley’s burial site presented challenges for the forensic investigators.

“A windy area, like a beach, can affect the existence of DNA. It can be ‘abraided away’, which is how they describe it,” Mr Crane told the court.

Toyah Cordingley, 24, was found dead at Wangetti Beach on October 22, 2018. . Picture: Supplied

He told the court in his opening address that DNA taken from the scene was compared with DNA taken from Mr Singh, and scientists assigned a probability to that data.

“Because they don’t test the whole DNA sequence and because scientists are scientists, they will never say to you that there is an exact match for the DNA sample taken from an item and the DNA sample of an individual. They will give you a probability,” Mr Crane said.

He said a partial DNA profile from the scene tested in a Queensland laboratory revealed a probability Mr Singh was “3.7 billion times more likely to have contributed to that stick on the gravesite”.

The court was told police also stripped bark from the stick, taking additional samples, producing probability results that Mr Singh was 42 million times more likely and 580 million times more likely to be a contributor to that stick with those samples.

No significant probability data could be obtained from Ms Cordingley’s fingernails by the Queensland laboratories, so they sent the samples to New Zealand for a different type of testing - called Y chromosome testing - that produced results that had “less uniqueness and more sharing of DNA”.

The New Zealand lab did two tests and compared 18 “areas of interest”, coming back with a full 18/18 profile the first time and 17/18 partial profile in the second test.

The trial did not sit on Friday, but will proceed next week when police officers and Mr Singh’s family and friends are expected to give evidence.

Originally published as The story behind Rajwinder Singh - the man on trial for the murder of Toyah Cordingley