Toyah Cordingley’s killer sentenced to 25 years in prison
Laine Clark
Updated ,first published
A former nurse will be sentenced to 25 years in prison without parole for fatally stabbing Toyah Cordingley, seven years after her body was found on an isolated beach.
Rajwinder Singh, 41, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Tuesday, a day after he was found guilty of murder following a four-week retrial in the Cairns Supreme Court.
Singh, 41, stabbed Ms Cordingley multiple times and slit her throat on a beach in northern Queensland in October 2018 before fleeing to India and hiding for years.
Cordingley, 24, was found half-buried in the dunes at Wangetti Beach, north of Cairns, by his father a day after he failed to return after walking his dog.
The jury reached a guilty verdict Monday after deliberating for nearly seven hours.
Singh’s first trial ended with a hung jury eight months ago.
Cordingley took his dog to Wangetti Beach on October 21, 2018.
His family was alarmed when his father did not return until the next morning, when he made a grisly discovery about 80 meters from his car.
Police claimed Cordingley died following a “personal and private attack”.
Shortly after the body was found, Singh, a nurse from Innisfail, about an hour’s drive south of Cairns, left Australia.
He left his wife and three children behind and boarded a plane to India, the country of his birth.
Queensland Police have offered a record $1 million reward in late 2022 for information leading to the location and arrest of fugitive suspect Singh.
Weeks later, Singh was arrested in New Delhi and extradited to Australia and charged with murder in March 2023.
Queensland Police later confirmed the $1 million reward had been paid to several people.
AAP
