Nurse found guilty of Australian beach murder

A former nurse has been found guilty of the high-profile murder of Toyah Cordingley, whose body was found on a popular Australian tropical beach seven years ago.

In October 2018, Toyah Cordingley was stabbed at least 26 times while taking her dog for a Sunday afternoon walk.

The 24-year-old girl’s body was discovered by her father, half-buried in the dunes of Wanggeti Beach, between the popular tourist attractions of Cairns and Port Douglas.

The day after Ms Cordingley’s body was found, 41-year-old Rajwinder Singh fled to India and remained on the run for four years. Members of the public gathered in the courtroom cheered and shed tears after a jury found him guilty on Monday after a month-long trial.

This is Singer’s second trial, after a previous trial in March ended in a hung jury.

Ms Cordingley was a health shop worker and animal shelter volunteer who was well-liked and well-liked by the local community and her death sparked an outpouring of grief across Queensland.

The Supreme Court in Cairns heard Ms Cordingley was stabbed “multiple times” with sharp objects and buried in a shallow sand pit with “little or no hope of survival”.

Singh, who is from the Indian state of Punjab, had been living in Innisfail, a town about two hours south of the crime scene, at the time of the crime.

Detectives quickly zeroed in on him as a suspect but he had flown out of the country, leaving behind his wife, three children and parents, the trial heard.

Prosecutors claimed this showed he was guilty. The court heard their case, albeit circumstantial, would show evidence pointing to Mr Singh “and to the exclusion of others”.

The evidence included DNA extracted from a stick at the scene, which was 3.8 billion times more likely to come from Singer than a random sample of the public. They also said the movements of Ms Cordingley’s phone after the attack matched those of Singer’s car.

Singer is due back in court for a sentencing hearing on Tuesday.