Rajwinder Singh pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court on Tuesday to the murder of 24-year-old Toyah Cordingley, more than six years after the young woman's body was found at an isolated far north Queensland beach.
Ms Cordingley drove to Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns, for a Sunday afternoon walk with her dog on October 21, 2018.
On Wednesday crown prosecutor Nathan Crane took the jury through the movements of Ms Cordingley's phone leaving the beach at 5pm that day, which he said was after she likely died.
He said Mr Singh's phone did not connect to any towers between 1.16pm and 8pm that day but Ms Cordingley's phone could be tracked moving south.
The jury was told Ms Cordingley's phone was roughly located in multiple areas that corresponded to a blue Alpha Romeo sedan seen on multiple CCTV cameras driving to Lake Placid Holiday Apartments.Â
"The vehicle has features of its colour, its wheels and its distinctive grille .. Rajwinder Singh owned a blue Alpha Romeo, a similar vehicle," Mr Crane said.
Jurors were shown photographs of the mound of sand that covered Ms Cordingley's body after she was found at the beach just before dawn on October 22, 2018.
Singh, who sat in the dock with his hands clasped in his lap, closed his eyes and looked down while the images were displayed on a large screen.
Mr Crane said a stick was found partially buried with Ms Cordingley, who had been stabbed in the chest and hands with her throat slashed.
"Mr Singh was 3.7 billion times more likely to contribute the DNA found on that stick," he said.
The jury heard Singh left Australia for New Delhi a day after Ms Cordingley's body was found and he was not seen again until he was tracked down in his native India in November 2022.
"Did not return to (his wife) or his children. The house was lost. The mortgage was not paid. He did not return to work (as a hospital nurse)," Mr Crane said.
Defence barrister Angus Edwards told the jury in his opening address that anybody at the beach that day could have killed Ms Cordingley.
"As you go through trial, ask yourself if Mr Singh being the killer is the only possibility," Mr Edwards said.
He asked the jury to consider whether the evidence about the phones, the DNA and the Alpha Romeo was as strong as the prosecution made it out to be.
"You will hear the great efforts of police, going over (Mr Singh's) clothes and car with a fine-toothed comb. Did they do the same thing with other suspects?" Mr Edwards said.
The trial is due to run for another four weeks in Cairns before Justice James Henry.
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