Accused killer to stand trial over wife’s tractor slasher death

A woman allegedly killed by her husband was found with 25 injuries when paramedics responded to calls of an accident involving a tractor slasher on the family’s farm, a court has heard.

Emergency services found the body of Amarjit Kaur Sardar, 41, at a property on Undullah Road in Woodhill, south of Brisbane, in February last year.

On Friday, her husband, Yadwinder Singh, 45, was committed to stand trial on charges of murder and interfering with a corpse. The couple, who lived with their two teenage children, owned the 55-hectare farming property containing cane and animals.

Singh appeared in Beenleigh Magistrates Court for his committal hearing on Friday morning. He was represented by lawyer Andrew Bale.

Wearing a black T-shirt, Singh appeared emotionless, at times looking at the floor as he sat with his arms crossed beside a Corrective Services officer.

A key piece of prosecution evidence was a brick found with DNA in a neighbouring paddock during searches of the crime scene.

The court heard Sardar had suffered 25 injuries to her face, neck and scalp.

Forensic pathologist Dr Beng Ong was questioned by Singh’s defence, with the court hearing that blunt force trauma was favoured by Ong as the cause of death.

However, Bale put it to Ong that the fatal injury had not been determined. Ong replied that it was most likely a combination of Sardar’s injuries, rather than a single one.

Bale said the autopsy report suggested the injuries to her face were inconsistent with the slasher machine.

Ong replied: “It’s not so much to the face, it’s most of the injuries to the top of the head that do not favour the slasher.”

Bale said there were lacerations, or chipping, to Sardar’s skull, which he suggested would mostly likely be caused by the slasher.

Ong disagreed, saying the injuries were probably most consistent with blunt force trauma, but he could not say what caused the fatal injury.

Bale suggested there was more to the machine than the blades, and some injuries could have been caused by another part of the slasher. Ong agreed.

Under questioning, Ong confirmed that Sardar’s death was the first in these circumstances he had encountered, and as such, there was no previous information to rely on.

The court heard from several police officers who attended the scene and found the brick in a neighbouring property. One officer told the court there were strands of hair on it.

The court heard the brick had a single source of DNA – Sardar’s. Bale said that while the brick may have a red stain on it suggesting blood, no other DNA profile was found on the brick, to which another forensic expert agreed.

Outside court, Bale said the defence team was grateful to cross-examine witnesses because there had been a “lot of speculation” about Sardar’s cause of death, with “police believing something had happened prior to the accident with the slasher”.

“It seems now the forensic evidence and the forensic pathologists agree that seems to be what the cause of death is,” Bale said.

“It may well be that what police said is not a tragic accident is, in fact, a tragic accident.”

Bale spoke of his client’s demeanour at the scene after the incident, saying Singh was the person to immediately call triple zero.

“He was absolutely and utterly distraught when police arrived, and in fact, when police arrived, he was performing CPR. All of those acts are certainly inconsistent with the police theory,” he said.

When asked about the brick, Bale said: “It’s a really interesting fact that we all deposit DNA wherever we go, and it can be deposited by any number of means, and I think we can be satisfied that the brick is really best described as a red herring.”

Magistrate Shane Elliott committed Singh to stand trial in the Supreme Court in Brisbane at a later date.

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