- Jul 11, 2025
10. 'Sorry Place'.
No one who has lived in Far North Queensland for any length of time is unfamiliar with the brutal murder of Toyah Cordingley, in October 2018.
Toyah (aged 24) was stabbed 26 times, in broad daylight on a public beach in a 'brutal, frenzied and sadistic attack'. Her death caused public horror and outrage. Bumper stickers with sunflowers calling for justice for her death are still to be found on many a local's car.
Some 4 years later, in an entirely circumstantial case, the Queensland Police Service prosecuted a brown person who is not from around here, Mr Rajwinder Singh, for her murder. Mr Singh's defense claimed that investigators "protected" Cordingley's boyfriend, Marco Heidenreich, because his stepdad was a former Cairns police officer.
Toyah Cordingley was not legally permitted to carry a weapon, not even pepper spray. She was murdered in broad daylight, and her boyfriend, the stepson of a former Cairns Police Officer, was not properly investigated.
The trial of Singh for the murder of Cordingley ended in a hung jury, as the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict after days of deliberations. The jury was discharged, and a retrial was set for November 2025.
Toyah's death inhabits the environment up here. Everyone is very well aware that this can happen, in broad daylight. And if a line of inquiry is detrimental to a protected class of people, it will not be properly investigated, no matter the public outcry.
The corruption of the Police Services is blatant. There is no law, unless it is applied impartially.
Instead, we have a very thin veneer of bureaucracy posing as justice.
People restrict their own freedom as a result. It is now not safe to walk your dog on the beach in the sun, unless you have the right connections.
Separately...
Queensland Police Officer, Frank Falappi was killed in a bike riding accident on 9 May 2025.
Frank was a very small-town cop in Mt Molloy (population 250), Far North Queensland. He was the only policeman in this town where I resided for 5 years or so. He walked around like the only person legally allowed to do so with a gun. Because he was.
Frank's death occurred about 5 weeks after I sent an open email to the Queensland Police Service requesting that he be suspended, pending a full investigation for his possible involvement in corruption, organised crime, and the human trafficking ring, which is targeting me. I requested that the investigation include Frank's unreasonable refusal to report or investigate the 2022 severe multiple dog attack upon myself, which occurred under suspicious circumstances and clearly amounted to, at least, criminal negligence.
His death also occurred only a few weeks after I moved to the town where he was posted, being Atherton, Far North Queensland.
Frank Falappi's death was the subject of a 'Non Inquest' in the Queensland Coroner's Court. On 19 May 2025, the Court found that the cause of Frank’s death was head and neck injuries due to the mountain bike collision.
Frank was not a stranger to me. I would often see him early in the morning as he trained on his bike while I walked my dog. He felt entitled to and seemed to inexplicably enjoy bullying me.
Of course, anyone who is a part of the organised crime and human trafficking network that operates completely unchecked in Far North Queensland will accuse me of denigrating the memory of a 'good guy' and an 'honest cop'. They will say that the proximity of time between his 'accidental' death and my public request for the investigation of his involvement in organised crime and human trafficking is entirely coincidental, and probably in bad taste. Maybe it was. Maybe it is.
Yet, in an environment where women are brutally murdered in broad daylight, I do not see how it is unreasonable for me to have questions about the untimely death of a person who was capable of corroborating the facts of a story that exposes the blatant state of lawlessness in Far North Queensland, and which diminishes everyone's safety and freedom.
Lies about how people live and die remain in the land.
We don't have to go back very far in time to realise that Far North Queensland is a great big 'Sorry Place' of un-acknowledgement.
May all of the stories that yearn to be told, be told.
May they all rest in peace.
.
References:
https://www.cairnslocalnews.com.au/tribute-to-frank-falappi-2025-05-24
https://www.coronerscourt.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/826508/falappi-francis-robert.pdf