Toyah Cordingley murder trial nears end as Rajwinder Singh elects not to give or call evidence
Rajwinder Singh is either Toyah Cordingley’s murderer, or the most “misfortunate man in Cairns and Innisfail”, a court has been told.
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Rajwinder Singh is either Toyah Cordingley’s murderer, or the most “misfortunate man in Cairns and Innisfail”, a court has been told.
Mr Singh, 40, a former nurse from Innisfail, has pleaded not guilty in the Cairns Supreme Court to the murder of Toyah Cordingley, 24, at Wangetti Beach on October 21, 2018.
On day 11 of the trial, the last witness was called, the prosecution completed its closing arguments, and the defence has begun its closing address.
Mr Singh was asked if he would give or call evidence as part of his defence, to which he replied: “No, Your Honour, thank you,” to presiding judge, Justice James Henry.
Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane urged the jury to disregard “exciting speculation” raised by the defence throughout the trial about “murder porn” and whether or not someone was a “nudist”, and to focus on the evidence.
“What is the alternative to Mr Singh being the killer?” Mr Crane asked the jury, “it is a series of coincidences”.
“If he is not the killer, he is the most misfortunate man in Cairns and Innisfail on that particular day,” he said.
Mr Crane said that “misfortune” would need to include Mr Singh’s DNA matching a stick in Ms Cordingley’s shallow grave; him followed a car carrying Ms Cordingley’s phone away from the murder scene at the right time; and a coincidental, sudden departure from his wife, children, job and mortgaged home the day Ms Cordingley’s body was found.
“They are not coincidences if he did it,” Mr Crane said.
Mr Crane said the trial had been “fact-heavy” and “unique”.
He invited the jury to consider three questions in their deliberations: Did Mr Singh bury Ms Cordingley; who had Ms Cordingley’s phone and; what is the reason Mr Singh left behind his life in Australia so suddenly?
He said the jury need not consider things like motive or a possible murder weapon, as they were not known nor relevant in this particular case.
He said the proposition that Mr Singh buried Ms Cordingley was supported by DNA evidence.
A driftwood log apparently used to “dam” sand to conceal Ms Cordingley’s body had traces of DNA consistent with Mr Singh’s DNA, he said, but the strongest evidence came from a stick in the shallow grave, which yielded several samples from its bark and surface that were 2500-times, 47 million-times and 3.7 billion-times more likely to have come from Mr Singh.
“Statistically, two or three people in the world will have the same profile,” Mr Crane said.
The likelihood Ms Cordingley’s phone was in Mr Singh’s car after her death was supported by telephone cell tower data, analysis and CCTV and road camera footage, Mr Crane said.
Mr Singh’s blue Alfa Romeo was captured and time-stamped at locations along the Cairns northern beaches, Smithfield and Caravonica areas at the times Ms Cordingley’s phone was also said to be there, before it stopped pinging in the early evening.
He said Mr Singh’s subsequent journey home was marked by detours and U-turns, most likely as he looked for a place to dispose of Ms Cordingley’s phone and other items of hers taken from the beach – perhaps her clothes, a wallet and a bag.
“He appears to be positively meandering home,” Mr Crane said.
“He stops by every possible area where he could get rid of it (the phone). … he drove into Lake Placid Caravan park, and turned out of there. He couldn’t get rid of it. There were people there.”
He said Mr Singh also passed by a waterway near McCoomb street, and went by Flying Fish Point near Innisfail, taking 30 minutes longer than expected to travel the route between the Riverstone roundabout and his then-home in Seymour St, Innisfail.
“He’s tried to find a place to get rid of things he has that would implicate him,” Mr Crane suggested.
He said the final question the jury should consider is the extent and gravity of the life Mr Singh left behind suddenly, and without telling his family.
“He had chosen to come to Australia for a better life. He had embraced the opportunity for a career, a good career – (and he was) someone who was very good at it, happy to be doing it,” Mr Crane said.
“He has left everything that he has and everything he ever had.
“He took enough clothes to get him to India; he didn’t tell his wife he was leaving her, he said he would be back the next day.
“He didn’t speak to his family, his dad went to India to find him and he couldn’t.
“He didn’t say goodbye to his three kids.”
Mr Crane said the three foundations of the case – the DNA in the grave, the movement of Mr Singh’s car and Ms Cordingley’s phone, and Mr Singh’s sudden departure – were strong on their own but “together, they are powerful and compelling”.
He also spoke to the jury about the defence team’s list of alternative suspects – Marco Heidenreich, Evan McCrea and Remy Fry – discounting each of them in turn.
He described Ms Cordingley’s boyfriend Marco Heidenreich as a “fall guy” and “red herring in this trial”.
“Rather than running away, he is calling triple-0 on the beach that night,” Mr Crane said.
“The information being used to discredit Marco Heidenreich (such as small injuries to his feet and phone data) is information he gave willingly to the police.
“The irony is that we never had that opportunity with Mr Singh – they are all the things you benefit from if you flee and take your phone.”
He said Evan McCrea might have done “weird” things in his life, but he “simply wasn’t on the beach that day”, and Remy Fry’s distinctive car was not seen in the same places as Ms Cordingley’s phone.
‘Easy to make an innocent man look guilty’: Defence
Defence counsel Angus Edwards KC has begun his closing address, saying there was no way of definitively knowing who killed Toyah Cordingley.
Toyah’s parents Troy Cordingley and Vanessa Gardiner stepped out of the courtroom as Mr Edwards launched his impassioned final defence of Rajwinder Singh.
Mr Singh has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Toyah Cordingley on Wangetti Beach in October 2018.
Mr Edwards said police should have explored “all the possibilities” rather than “assuming” it was Mr Singh.
He said the investigation “missed the boat” and police were blinded to the possibilities in their focus on Mr Singh.
“You only end up tracking one car and looking at the timing advance on one phone,” he said.
Mr Edwards said “even an innocent man can look guilty” as he reintroduced the defence’s alternative suspects: Remy Fry, Evan McCrea and Ms Cordingley’s boyfriend Marco Heidenreich.
He said there was no doubt Ms Cordingley was murdered, but there was evidence that “strongly suggested” somebody else was involved.
Mr Edwards said Remy Fry did go to Wangetti the day Toyah had died and he had provided a “false account” of that day to police.
He told the jury Mr McCrea also lied about his movements surrounding the murder investigation.
“He had a cut on his hand, he lied about his movements … he said he wanted to go kill something,” Mr Edwards said.
“His house was never searched.
“Maybe there is a bit more to Evan McCrea, maybe he is an innocent man. Isn’t it easy to make an innocent man look guilty.”
Responding to the prosecution calling Mr Singh the “most misfortunate man” if he did not kill Ms Cordingley, Mr Edwards said Mr Heidenreich must be the “unluckiest man”.
He said Mr Heidenreich was an “angry man” with a “reason to kill her”.
He said it had the “hallmark of a crime of passion”.
“What is closer to overwhelming anger than love,” he said.
“Marco Heidenreich has something to hide.”
Mr Edwards said that if he was really worried “wild horses would not have kept him off that beach” to continue searching.
He said “he searched longer and harder for his dog than he did for Toyah Cordingley”.
Mr Edwards said there were two possibilities: Mr Heidenreich killed Toyah Cordingley or he is “an innocent man who looks incredibly guilty”, again repeating to the jury “it’s very easy to make an innocent man look guilty”.
The defence will continue its closing address on Thursday before Justice James Henry will deliver his summing up of the case to the jury.
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