By Jordan Baker
An inquest has been shown video footage of the last minutes of Lilie James’ life, which captured her colleague Paul Thijssen patiently waiting outside a bathroom door with a hammer in his hand before he strode inside and killed her.
Thijssen stayed with her body for more than an hour, then went to a reserve in Vaucluse and called triple zero. “I would like to report a body in St Andrew’s Cathedral School in Sydney CBD,” Thijssen told the operator in a call played to the inquest.
An inquest has been shown video footage of the last minutes of Lilie James’ life.Credit: Facebook
Police rushed to the school and to the reserve. They missed Thijssen by three minutes; he had disappeared into the darkness to end his life. Minutes later, they discovered James’ body. She had been so violently attacked that officers thought it was someone else.
For a little while, in the early hours of October 24, 2023, they thought Thijssen had either kidnapped James or had enlisted her as an accomplice to his crime.
The misapprehension did not last for long. Police realised it was James when they saw CCTV footage showing her walking into the bathroom and Thijssen following with a hammer.
That footage was played to the inquest on Wednesday. It shows James, a sports coach, walking to the bathroom to get changed for water polo, a green swimming costume in her hand.
CCTV showed Paul Thijssen following James into the school bathroom with a hammer.Credit: LinkedIn
She sees Thijssen and chats to him; his demeanour is casual and calm. She walks from the staff room to the bathroom, her ponytail swinging. She looks briefly over her shoulder at him before heading inside the bathroom at 7.12pm.
“She has,” said Jennifer Single SC, the counsel assisting the NSW Coroner, “no hint of what’s about to happen.”
Thijssen then walks purposefully towards the bathroom, a pack on his back. He stands less than a metre away from the bathroom door, holding the hammer in his right hand. The camera captures him in profile; his back is straight, and at one point, his chest rises as he takes a deep breath.
Abruptly, at 7.14, he lunges towards the bathroom and opens the door. “No matter how many times you view that footage, it’s not easy to watch,” said Single, her voice wavering.
Edited transcript of triple zero call made at 11.45pm
Paul Thijssen: I would like to report a body in St Andrews Cathedral School in Sydney CBD
Operator: Sorry, you’d like to report?
PT: A body near there
She asks the address, and cross street
PT: If you go into the school there is an entrance on the left of the reception area, where there is a sports department. And there is a bathroom, uh, on the right hand side, where there is a body.
O: A body?
PT: Yep
She seeks further direction. He tells her its the first door on the right in the sports area.
PT: I think someone should just go in there before people arrive in the morning. Thank you
PT leaves car at 11.59. Police arrive at 12.02
“Your honour may have noticed how Lilie was smiling and interacting with Paul. There was little or no indication as to what he was going to do.” The inquest was told the attack “would have resulted in Lilie’s becoming incapacitated quickly and was not protracted,” Single said.
James’ parents, Jamie and Peta, remained in the court as the footage of her final moments was played and while the details of her cause of death were described to the inquest. It was the first time they had seen the footage.
Thijssen lingered in the bathroom for one hour and 12 minutes after the killing. Investigators do not know why he stayed there for so long, but Thijssen used James’ phone to message her father from the bathroom. “Don’t ask why or call please come to the school now and pick me up,” it said.
While her family and friends were frantically trying to reach James, Thijssen – whose clothes did not appear to have blood stains – returned to his car and drove to Diamond Bay reserve. Investigators believe he took James’ phone with him.
At one point that evening, he had a Snapchat conversation with a mutual friend about a uni quiz, in which they sent photographs to each other.
“He looked a bit blank,” Single quoted the young woman as saying. “He didn’t look like he was worried or was in trouble or anything.”
While sitting in his car near the reserve just before 10pm, Thijssen made electronic funds transfers worth $9100 to each of his flatmates, describing them as “six months’ rent”.
Paul Thijssen’s body was found off the cliffs at Diamond Bay, Vaucluse.Credit: Janie Barrett
Thijssen called triple zero at 11.45pm, a call played to the court. His voice was quiet and calm; the operator could barely hear him. He told them there was a body at the school. “There is a bathroom, uh, on the right-hand side of the [sports department], where there is a body,” he says.
He was asked when he’d been there; he said he couldn’t remember. “I think someone should just go there,” he told the operator, “before people arrive early in the morning.”
Paul left his car at 11.59pm and wandered into the darkness. Police believe he deliberately jumped or fell from the cliff soon afterwards. Officers arrived, lights flashing, at 12.02pm, “just three minutes after Paul last left the car,” Single said. His body was located on the rocks that Friday.
Police rushed to St Andrew’s, too, where James’ father, Jamie, was frantically searching for his daughter. They took him to the police station and found her body in the bathroom. She was unrecognisable, and they didn’t know at this stage that Paul had taken her phone.
“Broadcasts were made looking for Paul and a blonde-haired Caucasian female being held against her will or an accomplice,” Single said.
If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.
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