Jurors in a high-profile Australian murder trial have been taken to the remote Queensland beach where the victim was found.
Toyah Cordingley was repeatedly stabbed with a sharp object and placed in a shallow sandy grave with little or no hope of surviving, the jury has heard.
The 24-year-old's body was discovered by her father the following day on Wangetti Beach - a stretch of coastline between the tourist centres of Cairns and Port Douglas.
Rajwinder Singh, 41, denies murdering Ms. Cordingley on a Sunday afternoon in October 2018 in Far North Queensland.
The jury of 10 men and two women, plus three back-up jurors, attended the beach along with the judge and barristers on Monday morning local time, as the second week of the trial got under way.
In a nod to the tropical conditions and temperatures above 30C, Justice Lincoln Crowley wore a T-shirt, shorts, and trainers rather than a wig and robes. Both the lead prosecution and defence barristers opted for polo shirts, shorts, and baseball caps.
The jurors were led around 1.2km north up the sand to see where Ms. Cordingley's body was discovered. Earlier, as they arrived by bus, four red and white cones marked where the victim's car had been parked.
The trip was intended to help the jurors become familiar with key locations in the case, and no official evidence was given.
Last week, the Cairns Supreme Court heard that the day after Ms. Cordingley's body was discovered, Mr. Singh flew from Australia to India – leaving behind his wife, three children, and parents. He was not heard from until he was arrested four years later, the prosecution said.
It is alleged that Mr. Singh, who was working as a nurse in the town of Innisfail, had a confrontation with Ms. Cordingley. Prosecutor Nathan Crane described Ms. Cordingley as a young woman, blonde and attractive.
The pharmacy worker was found wearing a bikini, with all her other clothes and most of her possessions missing. Prosecutors allege those items were taken by the killer to avoid detection. Her dog, Indie, which Ms. Cordingley had taken to the beach for a walk, was found tied up to a tree hidden in shrubland about 30 meters from the grave.
No murder weapon was ever recovered, and no eyewitnesses have been found. But the prosecution insists that the case, though circumstantial, was built with evidence pointing to Mr. Singh and eliminated others. This includes DNA evidence from a stick at the scene that was 3.8 billion times more likely to belong to Mr. Singh than a random member of the public.
The jury has already heard evidence suggesting that Ms. Cordingley's phone left the beach after the killing – and that its movements matched those of a blue Alfa Romeo owned by the accused. Mr. Singh's sudden departure from Australia is also viewed as indicative of his guilt, according to the prosecution.
When police were locating Toyah's body, he was reportedly arranging a hasty trip back to India, the prosecutor said last week.
Although the defence has yet to present evidence, Singh's barrister claimed his client is a placid and caring individual, suggesting he was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time. During the trial, Singh reportedly described to an undercover officer seeing two masked men attacking Ms. Cordingley before fleeing in fear, which he termed his biggest mistake.\
The trial will return to the more conventional setting of the courthouse on Tuesday.
