Jury hears covert recording of Toyah Cordingley's accused killer Rajwinder Singh
By Christopher Testa
ABC Far North
Topic:Courts
7m ago7 minutes agoTue 11 Mar 2025 at 8:52am
Toyah Cordingley walks along a beach in a bikini with her dog.
Toyah Cordingley had gone to Wangetti Beach to walk her dog, Indie, the court has heard. (Facebook: Toyah Cordingley)
In short:
A Supreme Court jury has heard an audio recording of a conversation between Rajwinder Singh and an undercover police officer in the Cairns watchhouse.
The recording was made after the former nurse, 40, was extradited to Australia, accused of Toyah Cordingley's October 2018 murder.
What's next?
The lead investigating detective will return to the witness box when the trial continues on Wednesday.
The man accused of murdering Queensland woman Toyah Cordingley told an undercover police officer he witnessed a killing and ran for his life, a court has heard.
Ms Cordingley's body was found with violent injuries buried in sand at Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns, on the morning of October 22, 2018.
Rajwinder Singh, 40, has pleaded not guilty to her murder, which is alleged to have happened at the beach the afternoon before.
A covert audio recording of a conversation between Mr Singh and an undercover police officer has been played to a Supreme Court jury in the former Innisfail nurse's trial.
The recording was from part of a three-hour long conversation in the Cairns watchhouse in March 2023, after Mr Singh returned to Australia from India.
A sketch of a man with a beard wearing a turban
Rajwinder Singh is on trial at the Supreme Court in Cairns. (ABC News: Paula Broughton)
"They say I killed someone," Mr Singh can be heard telling the officer in the audio.
Mr Singh said he had "told the truth to my lawyer" and did not know who "the killers" were.
"It happened in front of me and I ran for my life,"
he said.
"I did not see their faces; they were covered."
Singh 'in shock'
In the recording, Mr Singh told the undercover officer the case had been in the news and said he had been linked to it through his car and decision to leave the country.
"That's the reason they're thinking — because I ran away I did something, I killed the person," he said on the tape.
Mr Singh described himself as having "never raised my voice to anyone" and said he had been "in shock since then".
a traffic cone in sand under some shade on a beach
Toyah Cordingley was found buried in sand at Wangetti Beach. (ABC Far North: Christopher Testa)
Mr Singh did not know he was speaking to an undercover officer or that the conversation was being recorded, the court heard.
Much of the audio was muffled, with loud ambient sounds from the watchhouse and radio commentary from a football match audible in the background.
Jurors were given a transcript to help them follow the conversation.
Mr Singh could be heard expressing spiritual views in parts of the audio.
"Whatever we are doing in this in this life, we have to pay for every [one] of our action in the next life, and whatever we get now, it is because of some past life," he said on the tape.
No evidence of metadata tampering
The jury has been told Mr Singh left Australia on October 23, 2018 — the day after Ms Cordingley's body was found.
An Indian arrest warrant for Mr Singh was issued in September 2021 but Indian police's efforts to locate him were not successful.
Mr Singh was arrested in November 2022 while visiting the Gurudwara Sikh temple in Delhi and subsequently volunteered to be extradited to face trial, the court heard.
A man with a long beard, wearing a navy jumper.
Rajwinder Singh returned to Australia in early 2023. (Supplied: Delhi Police)
At trial, Mr Singh's defence counsel has asked the jury to consider whether anyone else could have killed Ms Cordingley, including her boyfriend Marco Heidenreich.
Mr Heidenreich has told the court he went hiking at Spring Creek Falls, near Port Douglas, with his friend Joel Cuman the afternoon Ms Cordingley was allegedly killed.
They then spent hours searching for his dog, Jersey, who went missing towards the end of the walk, the court has heard.
A digital forensic analyst told the court a series of photographs Mr Cuman had taken on the hike did not appear to have had their time stamps or locations manipulated.
A man with glasses, wearing a suit jacket.
Joel Cuman (pictured) previously told the court he was hiking with Marco Heidenreich that afternoon. (ABC News: Kristy Sexton-McGrath)
Mr Cuman took eight photographs, time stamped between 3:41pm and 5:09pm.
Leading Senior Constable Mathew Rohde told the court he spent two weeks last year analysing data from Mr Cuman's phone and found no evidence of any metadata changes to the eight photographs.
Leading Senior Constable Rohde told the court it would require "substantial knowledge" and be "pretty much impossible for a general user" to access the Google and Samsung databases on the phone to change the images' metadata in a way that could not be detected.
A man with sunglasses walks out of court.
The court has heard Marco Heidenreich was hiking while Ms Cordingley was at the beach. (ABC News: Brendan Mounter)
"If I start messing around with a time stamp; it's going to look out of order — it's going to stand out," Leading Senior Constable Rohde told the court.
"Could it be done? Yes. Is it probable? No."
Singh matched fingernail DNA profile
Tuesday's evidence began with more testimony about forensic examinations of DNA samples taken from the scene.
A sample taken from Ms Cordingley's right fingernails matched the profile of Mr Singh, the court heard.
Queensland forensic scientists sent five DNA extracts to a New Zealand laboratory with the technology to perform specialist testing on degraded samples.
Those samples came from a sandshoe belonging to Mr Singh, Ms Cordingley's left and right fingernails and a log from the burial site where her body was found.
The tests looked at 27 genetic markers and compared the DNA profiles from the samples to those of Mr Singh and Ms Cordingley's boyfriend Mr Heidenreich.
A woman holding a present smiling at the camera
Samples of DNA were taken from Toyah Cordingley's fingernails. (Supplied)
Mr Singh's DNA corresponded with the whole profile of a sample from Ms Cordingley's right fingernails, forensic scientist Jayshree Patel told the court.
"Did Mr Heidenreich correspond across the whole profile?" Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane asked.
"No," Ms Patel replied.
Under cross-examination from defence counsel Angus Edwards KC, Ms Patel said it was not possible to say which fingernail or where on the fingernail the DNA had been left.
The court heard it was also not possible to determine how the DNA got there.
The trial, before Justice James Henry, continues.
Posted7m ago7 minutes agoTue 11 Mar 2025 at 8:52am
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