Accused's DNA at Toyah Cordingley's burial site 3.7b times more likely than others, court hears
By Christopher Testa
ABC Far North
Topic:Courts
7m ago7 minutes agoMon 10 Mar 2025 at 8:46am
A man with a long beard, wearing a navy jumper.
Rajwinder Singh has pleaded not guilty to murder. (Supplied: Delhi Police)
In short:
A forensic scientist has told a court Rajwinder Singh was 3.7 billion times more likely than another to have contributed to an DNA sample found on a stick near Toyah Cordingley's body.
Samples were compared to the DNA of more than 90 known individuals connected with the murder case.
What's next?
Forensic evidence will continue when the trial resumes on Tuesday.
A DNA sample taken from a stick at the burial site of Queensland woman Toyah Cordingley was 3.7 billion times more likely to have come from Rajwinder Singh than someone else, a court has heard.
Mr Singh, 40, has pleaded not guilty to the October 2018 murder of Ms Cordingley who was found buried in sand at Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns.
The former Innisfail nurse is standing trial at the Supreme Court in Cairns which has today heard evidence from forensic scientist Rhys Parry about tests of DNA samples taken from the scene.
A woman holding a present smiling at the camera
Toyah Cordingley was found dead at Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns. (Supplied)
Samples were compared against the known DNA of 92 people connected with the case including Ms Cordingley, her boyfriend Marco Heidenreich, Mr Singh, some family members, witnesses, police officers, and other persons of interest.
The items tested included a stick found partially protruding from the sand mound where Ms Cordingley was buried, along with bark, three wooden logs, sand taken from the area, and the lead from Ms Cordingley's dog Indie.
Boyfriend's DNA on dog lead
Mr Singh was 3.7 billion times more likely than not to have contributed to the DNA taken from part of the stick — a profile two or three people in the world would statistically be expected to fit, Mr Parry told the court.
It was also 42 million times more likely that a sample of DNA taken from bark came from Mr Singh than not, the court heard.
A court sketch of a man with a beard.
Rajwinder Singh, 40, is standing trial in Cairns. (ABC News: Paula Broughton)
But Mr Singh was either excluded or regarded as unlikely to have contributed to several of the other DNA samples that were tested.
That included the dog collar, lead and chain, upon which Mr Heidenreich's DNA was found.
Indie the dog was tied so tightly to a tree nearby she could not sit down, the court has previously heard.
"If you're trying to tie a knot onto something, that is then pulling through the hands and leaving DNA isn't it?" defence counsel Angus Edwards KC asked.
"Yes, in that scenario, yes, you would be more likely to leave DNA," Mr Parry replied.
"And not only more likely to leave DNA but also be more likely to be able to find the DNA because there's such a greater contribution?"
"Potentially," Mr Parry said.
dense scrub with a traffic cone propped in a tree
The court heard Toyah Cordingley's dog Indie was tied tightly to this tree. (ABC Far North: Christopher Testa)
Mr Heidenreich's DNA was also found on Ms Cordingley's cap, found at the beach, a sample from which Mr Singh was excluded from having contributed to.
However, Mr Parry told the court an item often handled by a person could be subject to "swamping".
"Other people who may have touched it for short amounts of time after that might not be detectable because that one person has so much DNA it just swamps out other individuals,"
he said.
Mr Heidenreich has told the court he was hiking with friends when Ms Cordingley disappeared.
'Low level' trace
Mr Singh's defence has asked jurors to consider whether any other potential killers may have been responsible for Ms Cordingley's death.
Among the names Mr Edwards mentioned in his address at the start of the trial was that of Evan McCrea — a Cairns tradesman who, in evidence, said he was not at Wangetti Beach on October 21, 2018, when Ms Cordingley is believed to have been murdered.
a long beach with vegetation and hills in the background
Toyah Cordingley's body was found at Wangetti Beach in October 2018. (ABC Far North: Christopher Testa)
The court heard a DNA sample taken from the top of Ms Cordingley's left hand had contributions from two people — Ms Cordingley, and one another.
The minor contribution was 340 times more likely to have come from Mr McCrea and 26 times more likely to have come from Mr Singh than a random member of the population.
Mr Parry told the court Mr McCrea and Mr Singh shared the same two DNA alleles found in that sample.
The court heard secondary contributors to DNA samples tested were often "low level trace", with a lot of potential contributors identified at low probabilities.
Clothes taken from Mr Singh's home in a search by consent in November did not reveal any traces of Ms Cordingley's DNA.
A police forensic witness, Sergeant Amanda Milligan, has previously given evidence in the trial that no traces of blood were found in Mr Singh's car.
Defence probes another local
Earlier today the court heard evidence from school teacher Remy Fry who was visiting his mother at Wangetti on the afternoon Ms Cordingley was allegedly killed.
Mr Fry told the court he spent "three or so hours" socialising with two friends and did not go down to the beach.
But one of those friends, Peter Lincoln, told the court he did not recall Mr Fry visiting him that afternoon.
a long beach with several police officers in the distance
Wangetti Beach is located about 40 minutes' drive north of Cairns. (ABC Far North: Christopher Testa)
Mr Fry said he left Wangetti about 4pm to head home to Kuranda.
The court was told CCTV footage captured Mr Fry's navy-blue Rover sedan at a service station and car park at Clifton Beach, 18 kilometres south of Wangetti, between 4.43pm and 4.52pm.
Defence barrister Brydie Bilic put to Mr Fry that he had lied to police about his movements that afternoon and the following morning — a suggestion Mr Fry rejected.
Forensic scientist Rhys Parry will continue giving evidence on Tuesday as the trial, before Justice James Henry, continues.
Posted7m ago7 minutes agoMon 10 Mar 2025 at 8:46am
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