Stalker Paul Lambert was dying to impress with his lies

STALKER Paul Lambert’s life of deception and violence against women ended in a murderous rage that has left family and friends in shock.

Paul Lambert faked his own death and claimed his father, mother and best friend had all died multiple times to elicit sympathy.

• ‘Psycho’ Tinder stalker terrorised reporter
• ‘Psycho’ Brisbane stalker Paul Lambert had form bullying women

HE WAS in her apartment – on the other side of the world from his family – when he got the call.

It was the worst news. His father, Denis, was dead. They’d been close, very close.

Paul Lambert hung up the phone, visibly distressed. Brittany Keil, the woman he’d left his life in Brisbane for, could see something was wrong.

His father was dead, he told her, shocked. But there was a problem. He’d already told her his father was dead.

As far as Brittany knew, Lambert’s dad had been dead for a year. He’d lied, he confessed. But now he was telling the truth. This time, his father really was dead.

This Paul – the lying, threatening Paul shot dead by police on November 3 after stabbing Port Macquarie doctor Angela Jay 11 times – was not the one his extended family had known in years past.

“The Paul I knew and watched grow up was a kind-hearted person with a big heart, who, like his dad, would genuinely do anything to help others,” a relative said.

“Paul was obviously very sick and I’m sad he didn’t get the help he may have needed before all this.”

As a teenager, Paul Lambert – then Paul Scales – had a habit of “latching on” to kids at school.

He would tell elaborate, self-serving lies to get attention. His mates thought he was a bit different but they included him because he seemed to want it so much.

He explained the lies by telling his mates he had problems with rejection.

He lied because he thought the sympathy gained from his tragic tales would keep his friends from abandoning him.

American journalist Brittany Ann Keil, who was stalked by Paul Lambert.

His father had abandoned him, he said. That’s why he was so desperate for it not to happen again.

But even that was a lie. Paul and his father had a close, loving relationship – despite his parents’ separation.

There was something much more complex behind Paul’s stories.

A long-time friend told The Sunday Mail that one of the biggest lies Paul told to his school friends was about the death of his girlfriend.

Paul had rushed home from a touch footy competition after getting the news she had died of cancer. He appeared devastated. They only found out it was a lie when Paul, in his early 20s, went on to fake his own death.

He typed out a suicide letter a dozen pages long, and sent it express post to half a dozen of his school mates.

Then he disappeared. For days, his family desperately searched for him until he suddenly turned up – alive and well. It was then that Paul’s mates discovered that not only had the suicide plan been a lie, so had the story about his dead girlfriend.

Paul’s family told his mates it had been a “white lie” – everybody told them – but friends were angry and decided to distance themselves from him.

Paul’s stalking history with police began in 2003, and he was certainly showing an inclination for that behaviour while studying at the Queensland University of Technology.

Dr Angela Jay, who was repeatedly stabbed then doused in petrol by Lambert.

“We were walking past a building in the city one day and he said a girl he liked from uni lived there,” a one-time friend said.

“I said ‘how do you know that?’ and he said that he’d followed her home one day.”

Paul attended St James College in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane’s inner north, and he worked part-time at Coles Coorparoo, in the city’s eastern suburbs.

He gained a university degree and worked in finance. He was smart and successful.

In 2014, he travelled to the US with his then-wife, Samantha Inkpen.

Their relationship had been tumultuous and their honeymoon difficult. Paul would later confess to being in contact with other women during their honeymoon.

During their US holiday, he signed on to Tinder and matched with Brittany Ann Keil, an award-winning television journalist. He didn’t tell her he was married, and they would not meet until his next visit abroad.

Early the following year, Paul travelled to Orlando, Florida, with his brother.

He’d been speaking to Brittany of his plans, but she hadn’t wanted to meet.

There had been something not quite right about Paul and she’d told him she was now seeing someone.

He ignored her and implored her to change her mind, telling Brittany he had given up his job and put his possessions into storage to see if he could make their relationship work.

It was more lies as Paul’s wife was waiting for him at home. When they did meet, Brittany pulled away as he tried to kiss her. It wasn’t what he expected.

Their relationship lasted only three weeks.

The house in Port Macquarie where Lambert stabbed Dr Angela Jay 11 times. Picture: Nathan Edwards

He spent the time peddling his usual lies. His father had died. His best friend had died. He’d suffered a head injury in a hiking accident.

One tragedy after another to gain sympathy. When she called things off, his usual stalking behaviour began.

He called, left messages. He threatened her. Demanded money to let her go. He set up a series of email accounts and bombarded her.

A terrified Brittany spent months trying to deal with him herself before finally contacting police.

“When I asked Paul why he has had a problem in the past with harassment and violating no-contact orders and was now repeating this behaviour … he stated borderline personality disorder,” a detective wrote in a report.

“He stated essentially what this disorder is is a fear of abandonment.

“He stated you’ll do anything just to have someone care about you, and it has destroyed his life … lie, cheat, steal, anything to try and repair the relationship you’ve damaged.

“He stated that with this disorder, he has told people in his life that his family members have died frequently. He stated his father, mother and best friend have all died over a dozen times.”

The threats, the demands for money, were only to hear from Brittany one last time, he explained.

Paul was deported, but his behaviour did not improve.

In February this year, he was driving his wife to see a Justice of the Peace to sign paperwork for their divorce.

Paul Lambert with Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith.

He became aggressive with her in the car and told her he would deliberately crash the vehicle. He planted his foot on the accelerator and Samantha screamed in terror and tried to take control of the wheel. He punched her twice in the face before pulling the car over and running off.

In the days that followed, he bombarded her with Facebook messages claiming he was going off to kill himself.

It was a tactic he had confessed to using many times to get a reply – any reply. Samantha ignored him.

Paul was soon back on Tinder looking for new victims. In recent weeks, he found one.

Angela Jay, 28, a doctor from Port Macquarie, looked much like the woman he’d left behind in the US but, like Brittany, the romance with Angela lasted only a short time.

Paul didn’t take it well and flooded her with threats, messages and phone calls threatening to kill himself.

“Your (sic) not safe in that house. I have some of the house keys,” he messaged her.

“I need you to understand this is my good side right now. The good side won’t last long. Especially being rejected.”

She took out an apprehended violence order but Paul was not so easily deterred. In early November, he let himself into her home and waited for her in the bedroom.

When she arrived home, he stabbed her 11 times, intending to set her alight when he was done.

But a neighbour heard her screams and came to the young doctor’s rescue.

Paul took off but was found by police. He lunged at them with his knife. They opened fire, killing him.

“I am shocked and overwhelmed that (Paul) hurt those young women,” the close family source said.

“It’s sad to read him being called a … psychopath and evil. It would seem he was all that after his actions.’’