Podiatrist Tyson Bryan Anthony Franklin dated Toyah a week before her death, Cairns Supreme Court hears in Rajwinder Singh pre-trial
Intimate text messages between Toyah Cordingley and another man have revealed the pair “had a connection” sparked by their mutual enthusiasm for Harry Potter in the weeks before she was allegedly murdered, a court has heard.
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The last person in contact with slain Cairns woman Toyah Cordingley before she died did not reveal to police the full nature of his relationship with the vivacious 24-year-old until confronted with text messages revealing the truth, Cairns Supreme Court heard on Tuesday.
Former Cairns children’s podiatrist Tyson Bryan Anthony Franklin was called as a witness to give evidence at a two day pre-trial hearing for the case of Rajwinder Singh, 39, who is charged with the murder of Toyah at Wangetti Beach on October 21, 2018.
The court previously heard Toyah sent a text to her long-term boyfriend Marco Heidenreich at 3.17pm that day saying she had to “pick up Tyson from the airport between 7pm an 8pm” and Mr Heidenreich had no idea at the time who Tyson was, and nor did Toyah’s family.
Defence barrister Brydie Bilic, assisting senior counsel Angus Edwards KC, cross-examined Franklin on Tuesday, asking if he had posted information about Toyah on the dark web.
He said he had never used “the dark web” but had used a “sharing website” to access and share pornography.
Ms Bilic asked if it included porn that could be described as “rough sex” and porn that included depictions of women being raped, and Franklin said yes.
She asked him if he had ever posted any details about Toyah on the website and Franklin denied this.
“You never mentioned her to other users,” Ms Bilic asked.
“No,” Franklin said.
In 2019, Franklin was sentenced to two years’ probation after being convicted for possession of child exploitation material.
The court heard at the time he downloaded the images over the course of a year and nine months and viewed links with titles such as “10-year-old jail bait twins” and “tied-up young girls”.
His podiatry licence was suspended when he was charged.
His penchant for child abuse material was discovered on October 22, 2018, when police seized Franklin’s phone when they were interviewing him in relation to Toyah.
The court heard he met Toyah 17 days before she died when she attended a podiatry appointment and the pair “had a connection” sparked by their mutual enthusiasm for Harry Potter – he saved her number as Slytherin and she saved his as Gryffindor, and they sent each other text messages frequently, often late into the night.
They went to Fairy Falls on October 14 and afterwards continued texting, often late into the night, with Franklin admitting they were “flirtatious” and “intimate” texts.
Ms Bilic quoted a text Franklin sent which said at the waterfall he “I noticed your shivering open lips. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t notice your nipples feeling the cold too” and Toyah responded she had a good time, but would wear better swimmers next time.
She revealed her boyfriend was away for the weekend and Mr Franklin sent a message about 11pm saying he’d like to come over and catch a movie.
Mr Franklin told police there was no physical contact between himself and Toyah but admitted to Ms Bilic that was a lie.
He gave a statement to police on October 22 but police called him back in on October 30 and confronted him with the text messages.
Toyah told him there were “little things not adding up” with her boyfriend, such as that she loved swimming and he wasn’t keen, and she was thinking of living on her own, the court heard.
“The police would never have known the true nature of your relationship if they had not found those messages,” Ms Bilic said.
“Correct,” Mr Franklin replied.
He told police he went to Toyah’s on October 14 at 11pm and they “rubbed and stroked” each other for hours.
In his second statement, Mr Franklin told police “after I stopped rubbing parts of her body, Toyah became upset, she said she was cheating on her boyfriend and ‘I am not that kind of person, Tyson’,” the court heard.
In a subsequent text he said “I get the feeling you’re into role play, quite fun, possibly kinky, possibly rough but passionate”.
Ms Bilic asked if he understood how important it was to tell police everything about his interactions with Toyah.
“Police needed to know about Marco and Toyah’s relationship,” Ms Bilic said.
“You are aware when a young woman goes missing her boyfriend may well be a suspect … the fact a young woman might have developed feelings for another man might be an important matter for police to know about,” Ms Bilic said.
“It is not until the police read out your text messages to you that you gave an honest account, do you accept that?”
Mr Franklin, who gave evidence via video link from a takeaway restaurant he said he was working in, said yes.
On Monday, Marco Heidenreich was cross-examined vigorously about his movements that Sunday afternoon and whether his relationship with Toyah was solid, and he maintained he had been hiking with a friend that day, not returning down the Captain Cook Highway until about 9.30pm because his dog went missing in bushland and he was searching for her.
Mr Heidenreich gave evidence he had seen Toyah’s car at Wangetti about 2pm when he travelled north and when he saw it still there at 9.30pm, he stopped and searched desperately for her on the beach, before calling police.
The court heard that Toyah told Mr Franklin in a text that Mr Heidenreich had asked her if everything was all right, because she seemed quiet when he returned from Melbourne, and he said he would hate to lose her.
Mr Franklin flew to Sydney on October 18 and arranged for Toyah to pick him up at Cairns airport at 7pm on October 21.
She never arrived.
The pre-trial hearing will reconvene in Cairns Supreme Court on June 3.
Neither Mr Heidenreich nor Mr Franklin has been charged with any wrongdoing in relation to Toyah’s death.
The trial is set down for June 22.
Mr Singh has not yet entered a plea.
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