Further facts revealed in Toyah Cordingley case
Cairns Court
The second week of the trial of Innisfail nurse Rajwinder Singh for the murder of Paws and Claws volunteer Toyah Cordingley has outlined further intricate details of what happened on the tragic day of her death on Sunday, October 21, 2018.
The court heard from witnesses, and saw CCTV footage, showing Mr Singh travelling from the Innisfail home where he lived with wife Sukhdeep Kaur, children aged eight, six and one, and his mum and dad.
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Mr Singh is first shown visiting Innisfail Woolworths at about 10am, with various video footage showing him with short black hair and stubble dressed in a tan polo shirt with black stripes, thongs, and light-coloured long shorts.
More CCTV shows him arriving at Cairns Central shopping centre at about 11.50am, where he visits Myer and takes the escalator to the food court, has lunch alone, then leaves the centre at about 12.40pm.
His blue Alfa Romeo is shown heading north through Smithfield roundabout at about 1pm, then Ellis Beach not long before 1.30pm.
The next footage shown in Cairns Supreme Court was of the car at Clifton Beach heading south just after 5pm, then on Lake Placid Road at about 5.20pm.
The court heard the car turned around and headed back the same way minutes later, then was seen in Gordonvale at about 6pm, and Innisfail at about 7.50pm heading toward Flying Fish Point.
The Alfa was then seen heading back to Innisfail after 8pm, entering the road where the family home was, Seymour Street, and on Flying Fish Point Road again.
Mr Singh’s wife Ms Kaur told the court she did not hear him come home that night after she went to bed at about 8.30pm.
With the help of an interpreter, she said she saw her husband the next morning, where he said he was going “somewhere” and would be gone for one or two days.
“The kids had school holidays. I said ‘could we come?’,” Ms Kaur said.
“He said no.”
The only time the family has seen or heard from him since is in the Cairns court, she said.
The in-laws stayed living with them for about two-and-a-half years, she said, but they then all moved out of the home because they could not afford the mortgage.
Earlier in the week, Cairns woman Merinda Bong told the court she was at Wangetti Beach on that same Sunday with a friend when she attempted to chat to an Indian man in a long cream shirt, long pants and dark glasses.
She said she also saw the same man staring at her and her friend later that day.
Two other beach visitors on the day, Brett Liddell and Nicola Hatt, said they arrived at the carpark about 4.30pm and went down to the beach.
Mr Liddell said he saw two men there, with one holding a “fairly big” camera.
In other details of note discussed in court, Ms Cordingley’s body was found 1.5km along the beach, while Mr Singh was believed to have arrived at Wangetti 20 minutes before Ms Cordingley did.
The trial continues on Monday.
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