Jurors walk Wangetti Beach as witnesses recall key events
A second week of evidence has unfolded in the Rajwinder Singh murder trial, with jurors retracing Toyah Cordingley's final steps at Wangetti Beach.
Week two of the Rajwinder Singh trial began at Wangetti Beach, where Toyah Cordingley was found dead. Jurors were shown locations linked to evidence, from the place her body was discovered to where her dog and car were found.
The jury also heard testimony from several witnesses who were at the beach on the day of her death, police officers involved in the search and investigation, and experts on mobile phone and vehicle tracking.
The accused’s wife gave evidence about their marriage and Mr Singh’s movements seven years ago. The week was shorter than normal, with proceedings ending early on Thursday and no court on Friday.
Jury visits Wangetti Beach
On Monday, November 17, the jury walked a 4km stretch of sand with the judge, prosecution, and counsel to view locations connected to evidence.
They saw the area where Ms Cordingley’s father found her body, the tree where her dog Indi was discovered, her parked car, and a large stormwater drain near Rifle Range Road. Heavy rain ended the site visit early.
Presiding Justice Lincoln Crowley reminded jurors this was an official part of the trial and told them not to have interactions with lawyers during the visit.
Police searches and investigation
The officer leading the search for Ms Cordingley said his role “evolved” after her body was found at Wangetti Beach. Senior Constable Carl Bishop spent 10 days at the beach collecting evidence, supported by SES, water police, a rescue helicopter, and police dogs trained to detect blood.
Constable Bishop said blood-detection dogs searched the tree where her dog, Indi, was found but did not detect any blood. He also assessed how difficult it would be to travel from the beach through the bush to the Captain Cook Highway.
Police on quad bikes initially tried to access tracks seen from a drone near Rifle Range Road, but were unsuccessful. Three of the most “robust” SES officers then attempted to get through on foot. Under cross-examination, Constable Bishop said police made three attempts to traverse the bush from the beach to the highway, walking 8km over five hours, but were unable to make it through. The court heard the paths were not well-defined and officers had discussed needing local knowledge of the creeks and mangroves to navigate the area.
He also recounted a search along the Barron River for Ms Cordingley’s phone, which involved ropes and the vertical rescue team.
Witnesses on the beach took the stand
Several witnesses who were at Wangetti Beach, located north of Cairns, on October 21, 2018, told the court what they saw the day Ms Cordingley was killed.
Clifford Mitchell said he saw a young blonde woman crouching near a light-coloured car and a man standing nearby while parked in the south carpark for a few minutes.
Rosario Maccarone and Christoph Huber, at the beach for a picnic, saw a similar young woman walking with a large dog, followed about 10 minutes later by a middle-aged man who had been staring at them.
Both couples gave statements to police in the days after Ms Cordingley’s body was found.
Additionally, Brett Liddell and Nicola Hatt told the court they visited the beach that afternoon to collect rocks. On the beach, Mr Liddell noticed two men walking north to south; one passed him without acknowledging his greeting and appeared to be in his 40s, with olive or dark skin, wavy dark hair, and carrying a large camera.
Ms Hatt also saw two men on the beach and three cars in the carpark, including a light-coloured vehicle near the highway. Both said the same vehicles were still in the carpark when they left around 5pm.
Other witnesses included Cairns woman Merinda Bong, who visited the beach with a friend to collect pippies and go fishing.
She said she saw a man she initially thought was Indigenous but later “realised was Indian”, wearing a long cream shirt, long pants and dark glasses, staring at her and her friend.
Her friend, Ford Jia, said he could not recall clothing or car details from seven years ago but remembered seeing three men, all caucasian, one with “white gingery” hair who appeared out of breath, one with a dog, and one he could no longer describe.
Phone and data experts take the stand
University of New South Wales telecommunications professor, Aruna Seneviratne, gave evidence for a number of hours.
He explained to the jury in detail how mobile phones connect to cell towers and factors which could influence signal strength
Buildings, steel, dense foliage and even the slight changes in a person’s position can improve or weaken a phone signal, he said.
“Handsets will generally latch onto the strongest or first-available signal,” Professor Seneviratne said.
The professor confirmed he had been to Wangetti Beach and the dense foliage could affect mobile coverage.
Additionally maps depicting the phone towers and base stations connecting with Mr Singh’s mobile phone on October 21 and 22 in 2018 were shown to the jury.
Optus senior technical specialist Raymond Chang, explained the way a mobile phone handset chooses the strongest antenna signal for connection.
He said the connection could depend on how “sensitive” the handset is, and how strong the signal from the antennae.
The jury also heard about a seven-hour gap in Mr Singh’s phone records. The afternoon Ms Cordingley died, his phone stopped connecting to the internet for seven hours.
Optus representative, Daniel Qamar, also took the witness stand to give evidence about Mr Singh’s mobile phone ‘internet metadata’ records.
He said the records showed Mr Singh’s phone was regularly uploading and downloading information on the morning of October 21, 2018 until 1:16pm. They did not resume until 8:15pm that same day.
Phone records also showed he had called the Innisfail Hospital, where he worked in 2018, on Sunday night and again on the Monday morning, he had also called his friend, Rajkaran Singh.
Other possible cars not looked into
Across a number of days, Detective Sergeant Matt Mattock, investigating officer in the murder trial, told the court how he narrowed down a list of vehicles that could have carried her phone from Wangetti Beach.
He explained police began with 219 vehicles, using CCTV from Clifton Road and Craiglie, timed travel comparisons, and mobile phone location data.
This list was then reduced to 70 vehicles, which were shown to the public through a police media release to identify drivers.
Vehicles were eliminated for reasons including travel times, distinctive features, and unique identifiers like tail lights or licence plate placement.
Sergeant Mattock also detailed tracking a blue Alfa Romeo, registered to Mr Singh which was later seized by police.
The car was used to “re-enact” the route from Innisfail to Wangetti Beach and back. Then compared as side-by-side footage from October 21, CCTV.
CCTV footage showed the car making multiple stops, including Innisfail Woolworths and Cairns Central, before heading north and later returning to Innisfail after 8pm. Sergeant Mattock said lighting, angles, and the car’s driving pattern reinforced it was the same vehicle captured on CCTV.
Under cross-examination, Sergeant Mattock said his team conducted a “painstaking” frame-by-frame comparison of vehicles, considering details as small as taillight shapes and windscreen curves.
He said the process was thorough, comparing similar vehicles to ensure no potential matches were missed.
Sergeant Mattock described the process as a “painstaking” frame-by-frame comparison.
Wife of accused murderer takes the stand
The accused’s wife spoke about their marriage and her husband’s movements seven years ago. Sukhdeep Kaur was supported in court by interpreter Lata Modi, who translated questions to Ms Kaur and her answers back into English.
Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane began by asking how she knew the defendant. “He is my husband,” Ms Kaur said.
She explained their marriage was arranged by both families. When she first moved to Australia with her husband, she worked as a banana packer but eventually stopped to care for their three children.
The couple became Australian permanent residents in 2012, and by the time their third child was born in 2017, Ms Kaur was no longer working and relied solely on Mr Singh’s income.
On October 21, Ms Kaur said she saw her husband leave the house with her father-in-law in his blue Alfa Romeo but was asleep when he returned that night.
She could not recall whether she spoke to him during the day. The following day, Mr Singh told her he was going away for one or two days. She asked if she and the children could join him, but he said “no”.
Defence counsel asked whether, in February 2018, Mr Singh had told her he wanted a divorce. Ms Kaur confirmed he had, and she agreed that in April 2018 he left the house and the marriage.
She did not know where he had gone at first, and only learned about his location around ten days later. The court also heard that in 2018, when Mr Singh left, Ms Kaur could only speak a little English, though she has since improved and returned to work. She said the family home was later repossessed because the mortgage was not being paid.
Cross-examination highlights tension in court
During cross-examination, defence counsel Kate Juhasz repeatedly tried to read passages from Ms Kaur’s earlier evidence.
“Ms Kaur, what I’ll do is just read you out the passage of the evidence that you gave in March 2025,” she said.
Justice Crowley interjected: “Just ask the question.”
When Ms Juhasz again tried to preface a question with past answers, the judge interrupted a third time: “No, Ms Juhasz, that is not the way to put a question to a witness. You put a question and ask them if they said that.”
Ms Kaur was then questioned about her marriage in 2018. She said she did not notice any injuries on Mr Singh and confirmed he did not carry a knife.
“It is not acceptable in our house to go fishing, so no, there was no knife,” she said.
As the trial headed into the weekend, Justice Crowley reminded jurors not to look up anything about the case.
“Any media reporting, ignore it and put it out of your minds,” he said.
“Remember, it’s only one part of the case. Do not discuss the matter with anyone except your fellow jurors. Keep an open mind. We have heard a lot, but there is still quite a lot of evidence to come.”
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Originally published as Jurors walk Wangetti Beach as witnesses recall key events
