Who gave evidence in the first week of murder trial over death of Toyah Cordingley<\/a><\/p>\nFormer Innisfail nurse Rajwinder Singh, 41, is standing trial over the 24-year-old’s 2018 murder.<\/p>\n
Rajkaran Singh said his friend handed over the keys to his car at the house, and that he only carried one duffel bag.<\/p>\n
He told the court his friend was scrolling on his phone during the journey to the airport and that he would explain his demeanour when he returned in several days.<\/p>\n
“I just asked him, ‘are you ok? You’re looking very stressed’,” Rajkaran Singh said.<\/p>\n
“He said ‘everything is fine, I’ll let you know when I come back’.<\/p>\n
“It was quite a clear, strong statement, so I didn’t ask again.”<\/p>\n
They never spoke again, despite attempts from Rajkaran Singh, the court heard.<\/p>\n
Rajwinder Singh ‘a calm person’, friend says<\/p>\n
Under cross examination from defence barrister Kate Juhasz, Rajkaran Singh told the court he knew Rajwinder Singh as a “calm person” who did not raise his voice.<\/p>\n
Ms Juhasz: Have you ever known Mr Singh to carry a knife?<\/p>\n
Rajkaren Singh: No<\/p>\n
Ms Juhasz: A ceremonial knife or a recreational knife?<\/p>\n
Rajkaren Singh: No, never seen him.<\/p>\n
Rajkaran Singh told the court the accused was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and had no visible injuries on the ride to the airport.<\/p>\n
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Yesterday, the jury was taken to the spot on the beach where Ms Cordingley’s body was found buried in the sand. (ABC News: Conor Byrne)<\/p>\n
Evidence from Wangetti Beach<\/p>\n
The court also heard evidence from people who were at Wangetti Beach on the afternoon Ms Cordingley is understood to have died.<\/p>\n
Christoph Huber and his wife Rosaria Maccarone \u2014 day trippers from nearby Kuranda \u2013 told the court they recalled seeing a pale woman in her 20s with light-coloured hair, wearing a sarong-style shirt.<\/p>\n
They told the court they recalled she had a large dog.<\/p>\n
Ms Maccarone said the woman she saw was wearing a “really floppy” wide-brimmed beach hat.<\/p>\n
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The trial continues in the Supreme Court in Cairns. (ABC News: Mark Rigby)<\/p>\n
They told the court they also felt unsettled about 10 minutes later as a tanned man in his 40s nearby stared at them on the beach for several minutes.<\/p>\n
“He was staring at us multiple times for long periods,” Mr Huber said.<\/p>\n
“I felt uncomfortable. It’s not normal for people to stare at you for that long.”<\/p>\n
Mr Huber said he found it unusual the man was wearing long beige pants.<\/p>\n
“It’s not something you’d wear at the beach. It was a hot day,” he said.<\/p>\n
The trial continues.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A close friend of the man accused of murdering 24-year-old Toyah Cordingley has told a court Rajwinder Singh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292552,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[168236,64,63,651,72,31801,22928,1209,2968,44,1155,136481,94,701,159982,72885,160849,26681,159981,1109,160851],"class_list":["post-292551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-alfa-romeo","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brisbane","tag-cairns","tag-far-north-queensland","tag-flight","tag-india","tag-murder","tag-news","tag-plane","tag-port-douglas","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-rajwinder-singh","tag-stressed","tag-supreme-court-in-cairns","tag-tourist","tag-toyah-cordingley","tag-trial","tag-wangetti-beach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}