A FORMER hospital nurse has been found guilty of murdering a dog walker on an Australian beach in 2018.
The verdict was reached seven years after Toyah Cordingley was discovered half buried in the sand dunes of a beach in Queensland with multiple stab wounds and a slashed throat.
Rajwinder Singh, 41, was charged in March 2023 accused of stabbing the 24-year-old at Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns.
The suspect pleaded not guilty to murder at a four-week trial at Cairns’ Supreme Court.
However, a jury eventually came to its guilty verdict at a retrial on Monday afternoon after seven hours of deliberation.
Evidence presented in court included phone records, DNA samples, CCTV and traffic camera footage, and the movements of Singh’s blue Alfa Romeo.
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It comes nine months after a jury was unable to reach a decision at his first trial.
“Today’s verdict delivers a from of justice, but there can never be true justice for us,” Cordingley’s father said.
“We now live in a world without Toyah, an it is a poorer place for it.
“Toyah will always be alive in hour hearts and the hearts of many others.
“For us as a family, we will never forget this loveable, innocent, full of life young woman, and we will always wonder what could have been if her life as not cut as short.
“As far as the person who committed this murder and inflicted a horrible death on our daughter, it will never be forgiven by us.”
On October 21, 2018 Cordingley made the 40km journey to Wangetti beach to walk her dog.
Her family raised the alarm when she did not return home.
Her father later found her body 800 metres away from her car, while her dog, Indie, was unharmed and tied to a nearby tree.
It thought that Singh attacked the 24-year-old after her dog barked at him as they walked on the beach.
The cops claimed that Cordingley died after a “personal and intimate attack”.
The news of her death rocked the community, with hand-made posters quickly appearing appealing for information.
Simultaneously, several tributes were posted online for the “gentle, humble and loving” young woman.
Around 350 people attended her funeral at a small chapel in the Cairns suburb of Manunda.
A record $1 million reward was offered by Queensland Police in late 2022 for information leading to the location and arrest of runaway suspect Singh.
Police believe that Singh, an Australian citizen who was born in India, fled not long after Cordingley’s body was discovered.
He left behind his wife and three children at Innisfail near Cairns – and did not contact them until his arrest nearly four years later.
Weeks after the reward was announced, Singh was arrested in New Delhi.
He was then extradited to Australia and charged with Cordingley’s murder in March 2023.
Singh waived his right to challenge the extradition order, telling AAP in New Delhi: “I want to go back.
“It is the (Indian) judicial system that has been holding things up.”
“I did not kill the woman,” he said.
He added that he wanted to “reveal all the details” to an Australian court.
Queensland Police later confirmed that the $1 million reward has been paid to a number of people.
