Rex Martinich
The mother of a young woman brutally murdered on a beach has sobbed in court as the details of the crime were debated for the killer’s appeal.
The body of Toyah Cordingley, 24, was found buried in the sand at an isolated north Queensland beach on October 22, 2018.
Former Innisfail nurse Rajwinder Singh was found guilty of her murder by a Cairns Supreme Court jury in December 2025 and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Singh’s bid to overturn his conviction or reduce his non-parole period of 25 years was heard in Brisbane on Tuesday.
Cordingley’s mother, Vanessa Gardiner, was in court as the murder was described as “nothing particular” that warranted more than the standard minimum of 20 years in custody.
“This was without associated offending,” Singh’s barrister, Saul Holt KC, said.
Gardiner cried and held her head in her hands when the three appeal judges responded to Holt.
“If you were walking along a public beach minding your own business and a stranger comes and slashes her throat four times, that’s not enough?” Justice David Boddice said.
Singh appealed his conviction on four grounds, including that the trial judge discharged a jury member improperly after an accusation of bias against police was taken at “face value”.
“It risks the serious perception that one juror can get rid of another juror with whom they disagree,” Holt said.
He also argued that jurors had improperly been allowed to hold discussions in small groups during an official visit to the beach.
The judge then went too far in telling the jury they could eliminate Cordingley’s boyfriend as a suspect if they accepted a single piece of evidence, he said.
Holt also claimed the prosecutor sowed prejudicial “seeds in the mind” of the jury by telling them Singh might have had urges that he could not control.
Singh received a life sentence for what the trial judge called a “shocking and sickening act of violence” that ended with slashing Cordingley’s throat.
The young woman had driven to Wangetti Beach, about 40 kilometres north of Cairns, to walk her dog on October 21, 2018.
Her family raised the alarm when the “vibrant, outgoing, beautiful” 24-year-old failed to return.
The next morning she was discovered by her father half-buried in the beach’s dunes.
Her beloved dog, Indie, was found alive nearby, tied tightly to a tree.
The day after Cordingley was found, Singh booked the next flight to India, leaving his family behind.
A record $1 million reward was offered by Queensland Police in late 2022 for information leading to Singh’s location.
He was arrested in New Delhi weeks later, then extradited to Australia and charged with murder in March 2023.
Director of Public Prosecutions Todd Fuller, KC, dismissed suggestions the judge’s conduct was improper.
In the case of the juror accused of bias, justice had been properly served as the accused juror had been replaced by a reserve person who had heard the same evidence, Fuller said.
Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane denied Singh’s sentence was excessive for such a brutal crime.
“It was a frenzied attack with a suggestion of a sexual purpose,” Crane said
The appeal court will deliver its judgment on a later date.