The jury in the murder trial of a man accused of stabbing a woman at least 26 times has been discharged, paving the way for a retrial.
Organic food store worker Toyah Cordingley, 24, was found dead on the remote Wangetti Beach in Queensland on 22 October 2018.
She was out walking her dog when she was stabbed at least 26 times in what was called a “frenzied, brutal and sadistic” attack. Her body was found half-buried in sand dunes by her father.
Rajwinder Singh, 40, a former hospital nurse at nearby Innisfail, fled to India hours after Cordingley’s body was found, leaving behind his wife and three children. He was arrested by police in Delhi and extradited to Australia in 2023.
The jurors in the Supreme Court in Cairns were unable to reach a unanimous decision in deliberations that began on Friday and continued until Monday.
They then issued a note to Justice James Henry informing him that they were deadlocked and unable to reach a unanimous decision while there were no further questions or evidence to consider.
"I thank you for your diligence," the judge said as he discharged the jury.
A hung jury is dismissed under Queensland law if they are unable to reach a unanimous or majority verdict, paving the way for a retrial with a new jury.
Justice Henry said a hearing would take place on 26 March to set a retrial date, adding that further delay in the case "would be a sad thing for all concerned".
Mr Singh's defence counsel, Angus Edwards, said that he could go for a different legal representation during the retrial.
Mr Singh, originally from Buttar Kalan in northern India’s Punjab state, had been living in Australia since 2009.
At the time of Cordingley’s murder, he was living in Innisfail, two hours away from where her body was located.
There were no eyewitnesses to Cordingley’s death or the subsequent hiding of the body even though several people visited the 4km beach the day she was killed.
The three-week trial saw many of those people tell the court they saw a suspicious man staring at them, but did not actually witness the murder.
The prosecution produced cellphone data suggesting the victim’s phone moved in the same direction as Mr Singh’s blue Alfa Romeo sedan on the day she went missing.
The court was also told that a DNA sample taken from a stick in the victim’s shallow grave was likely a match for Mr Singh. In addition, Mr Singh’s hurried escape to India was presented as evidence in the trial.
Mr Singh denied any wrongdoing. “I did not kill the woman,” he had told a Delhi court after his arrest in India.
After his return, he said he would “reveal all the details” to an Australian court and told reporters that “there were two killers and two victims”.
Mr Singh was arrested by Delhi police based on intelligence shared by the international policing organisation Interpol as well as Australian police. The Queensland government had offered A$1m (£563,000) for information that could lead to his arrest, making it the largest reward offered in the history of the state.
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