Gravesite DNA and categories of evidence “stack” against Rajwinder Singh: Crown

Crown prosecutor tells jury that Rajwinder Singh's family “don't know his urges and desires" as he highlighted DNA evidence linking the accused to Toyah Cordingley's sandy grave in his closing arguments.

Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions barristers Nathan Crane and Hannah McNeale arrive at the Cairns Supreme Court to continue their closing address in the trial of Rajwinder Singh, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 24 year old Toyah Cordingley on Wangetti Beach, on October 21, 2018. Picture: Brendan Radke

Presenting final arguments in the case against Rajwinder Singh, the Crown has painted a picture for the jury of a killer with unknown “urges and desires”, a dedicated police investigation and DNA evidence from Toyah Cordingley’s sandy grave that “almost perfectly matches” the accused man.

“The people who know him the best don’t know him. They don’t know what his urges ... and desires are, and what he’s been doing to suppress it,” Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane said, addressing the jury.

“What they (his family) would have thought is that he would be with him forever, but he abandoned them all.”

Rajwinder Singh is on trial for the alleged murder of Toyah Cordingley. Artwork from day nine of the Supreme Court trial on Thursday, November 20. Drawing Julie Haysom

Rajwinder Singh, 41, a former nurse from Innisfail, south of Cairns, has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 24-year-old Ms Cordingley on Wangetti Beach on October 21, 2018.

Her body was found buried under sand the following day.

The trial, now in its fourth week, has heard from more than 70 witnesses.

In his closing remarks to the jury, Mr Crane focused in on Mr Singh’s unexplained flight from Australia to India the day Ms Cordingley’s body was found, and the sudden “abandonment” of his family, and his “beautiful children”.

“It is the most extreme conclusion after one of the most extreme acts you could do – killing someone – the ultimate sacrifice (of leaving his family) for his freedom – knowing what he had done that day, he had to leave,” Mr Crane said.

Mr Crane described police search efforts as “trying to find a needle in a haystack”.

He urged the jury not to be ‘intimidated’ by the circumstantial nature of the murder case, saying they must simply “stack” the pieces of evidence on top of each other.

Mr Crane took the jury to the main “categories” of evidence he said must be considered together: Mr Singh’s ‘flight’ from Australia; the movement of Ms Cordingley’s mobile telephone after she died; the methodology in matching this with movement of cars from Wangetti Beach, and the DNA evidence.

Wangetti Beach, where Toyah Cordingley was killed on October 21, 2018. Rajwinder Singh has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Toyah Cordingley. Picture: Brendan Radke

A stick that lay at the top of the sand over Ms Cordingley’s body at Wangetti Beach was ‘tape-lifted’, tested with luminol, and bark scrapings taken, he said.

He said the DNA lifted from one section of stick was found to be 3.7 billion times more likely to belong to Mr Singh.

The bark scrapings that activated the luminol produced an “incomplete two person sample” with one sample being 42 million times more likely to belong to Mr Singh and the other sample belonging to Toyah Cordingley, he told the court.

“His (Mr Singh’s) DNA is at the gravesite of a dead woman,” Mr Crane told the jury.

Sections of the three driftwood logs that were used to ‘dam’ the sand over Ms Cordingley’s body also contained DNA consistent with belonging to Mr Singh in likelihood ratios of between three and 2500 times more likely, he said.

Two sets of Ms Cordingley’s fingernails were tested in a New Zealand lab, with one set showing very little male DNA and the other “almost perfectly” matching the profile of Mr Singh, the court has heard.

Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions barristers Nathan Crane and Hannah McNeale arrive at the Cairns Supreme Court to continue their closing address in the trial of Rajwinder Singh, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of 24 year old Toyah Cordingley on Wangetti Beach, on October 21, 2018. Picture: Brendan Radke

Mr Crane said Mr Singh’s own story about the murder, told to an undercover police officer in Cairns Watchhouse, did not correspond with the DNA evidence.

“Mr Singh does not put himself at this location (where Ms Cordingley was buried) … He said he was on the beach and ... puts himself at a distance far enough away that two masked killers didn’t chase him down - the only eyewitness.” Mr Crane said.

“His version can’t answer that (why his DNA is at the grave) and there is a reason for that.”

Mr Crane told the jury the Crown must also present evidence that “excludes the entire world” as possible suspects.

He told the jury that other names had been “given to them”, such as Ms Cordingley’s boyfriend, Marco Heidenreich, school teacher Remy Fry, whose mother lives at Wangetti Beach, and Evan McCrea, a nudist who had visited the beach in the weeks before Ms Cordingley’s death.

He said the police had gone to great lengths to “narrow down the field” of people who had the “opportunity” to commit the crime.

He said cross examination by Mr Singh’s lawyers about the investigation “actually made the point for the Crown” that other people mentioned could not have committed the crime.

Toyah Cordingley was found dead at Wangetti Beach on Monday, October 22, 2018. The Cairns girl was known for her work with Paws and Claws and was with her dog at the beach shortly before she died. Police are investigating her murder.

He said the police received and followed up about 3000 tips.

“Why would the police not want to find the person who did this on at this beach?” he said.

“What is the motivation for the police to be lazy when you know what this was like in 2018. It is astounding the suggestion that the police in this town would not want to solve this crime.”

He told the jury the real questions to consider were: “Who put Toyah’s body in the grave? Who dug the hole? Who covered her in the grave?”

He said answers to those questions pointed to the killer — the person who touched the sand, took her belongings, and had the most intimate connection to the crime scene.

“The facts you’ve heard in this case… it points to one conclusion, and it’s Mr Singh,” he said.

Mr Crane will complete his arguments on Wednesday, after which the defence will present its closing arguments to the jury.

The jury is expected to retire to consider its verdict later this week after receiving closing remarks and instructions from presiding Justice Lincoln Crowley.

Originally published as Gravesite DNA and categories of evidence “stack” against Rajwinder Singh: Crown