Rajwinder Singh pleads not guilty to murder of Toyah Cordingley on remote Queensland beach | Queensland

The jury in a trial of a man accused of murdering a young woman will hear from almost 500 witnesses including police and experts in DNA and phone data.

Rajwinder Singh has pleaded not guilty to murder, more than six years after 24-year-old Toyah Cordingley’s body was found at an isolated beach.

The supreme court of Queensland on Tuesday started hearing the case in Cairns, about 40km south of the alleged crime scene in the state’s far north.

Crown prosecutor Nathan Crane read to potential jurors a list of 468 witnesses that could be called to give evidence.

The list included nearly 100 police witnesses, 12 DNA experts and eight telecommunications experts from major phone service providers.

Singh, a nurse from Innisfail, was charged in March 2023 with the murder of 24-year-old Cordingley.

Singh formally entered a plea for the first time on Tuesday and said “not guilty” when asked how he pleaded to the charge of murdering Cordingley on 21 October 2018.

Police accused Singh of fatally stabbing Cordingley at Wangetti beach, north of Cairns.

The court took more than two-and-a-half hours to process a pool of hundreds of people to potentially serve as jurors.

Singh appeared with a beard, blue suit and white turban, sitting roughly in the middle of a dock built to hold up to six defendants at once.

The courtroom was full to overcapacity with potential jurors who listened to Singh be arraigned on the charge of murder and his plea.

A jury of four women and eight men were empanelled along with three male reserve jurors.

Justice James Henry asked the jurors to consider if they knew anyone on the list of witnesses, or had prior knowledge of Singh or Cordingley.

“You may feel your knowledge means you cannot be completely impartial,” Henry said.

“Or there may be something about the nature of this case or some other reason personal to you why you feel you should not be serving on this jury.”

Henry asked the jurors whether they would have difficulty walking on Wangetti beach to visit the alleged crime scene at some point during the trial.

No jurors raised their hands in response to the judge’s repeated invitations to discuss any concerns in private.

Cordingley drove to the beach for a Sunday afternoon walk with her dog on 21 October 2018.

Her family raised the alarm later that evening when she did not return.

Her body was found half-buried in a section of sand dunes about 800 metres from her car, which was parked in a camping ground at the beach’s southern end.

The trial before Justice Henry is expected to continue for four weeks.