Lies, mementos and violence: Inside the life of twisted killer Paul Thijssen
One item left behind by Paul Thijssen, who took his own life after killing water polo coach Lilie James, exposed the violence and lies that underwrote his relationships.
When police swept into Diamond Bay Reserve hours after Lilie James had been brutally murdered, desperately searching for her killer Paul Thijssen, what they found among his belongings baffled them.
Scattered among some of his clothes and a backpack was a handwritten set of “vouchers” which had been affectionately given to him by a former girlfriend, Freya, two years earlier.
The booklet was created by the woman to celebrate their four-month anniversary and was labelled “Paul & Freya’s Week”.
The woman had broken off their relationship, finding Thijssen suffocating, and during an inquest this week, the court heard how he punched a tree after he could not handle her rejection.
Eerily, Thijssen was discovered stalking Freya and peering into her home just days after she had told him she was breaking it off.
It is not known what significance the vouchers held to Thijssen and why he had them with him when he killed himself after murdering Ms James with a hammer inside St Andrew’s Cathedral School in Sydney’s CBD.
What is known, is that after both Ms James and Freya ended their relationship with Thijssen, he spiralled wildly, lashing out with violence.
And while many questions linger about the 23-year-old Dutch national, revelations during an inquest paint a disturbing picture.
‘DERAILED’
Thijssen killed Ms James on the evening of October 25, 2023, cornering her inside a bathroom of the prestigious Sydney private school where they were colleagues.
Her death was horrific and her hair was so bloodstained that police could not immediately identify her.
In the hours afterwards, Thijssen committed suicide by jumping off a cliff at Vaucluse.
Counsel assisting Jennifer Single SC told the court that Thijssen’s parents had told the counsel assisting team that they had evidence of how his life had “derailed” in the two years preceding his death.
However, they declined to provide that evidence to the court.
His parents, who live in the Netherlands, were not present during the inquest.
There was no evidence Thijssen suffered from any significant mental health condition or personality disorder, the court heard.
“The event which triggered an escalation in Paul’s behaviour was Lilie’s decision to end the relationship,” Ms Single told the court.
“Following which, Paul started to stalk Lilie and plan his attack.”
WHO WAS PAUL THIJSSEN?
Thijssen was born in November 1999, was the only child of parents Esther and Stefan and spent the first 15 years of his life in his native country.
He was 23 at the time of his death.
In 2015 his family moved to Sydney from the Netherlands and he enrolled at St Andrew’s Cathedral School in Year 10.
He went home to the Netherlands for university but returned to Sydney in 2020 where he got a job at the school as a sports assistant.
He returned again to the Netherlands in July 2021 to complete his studies and at the time was in a relationship with another young Australian girl - Freya - who stayed behind.
“Early on in their relationship, Paul wanted Freya to share her iPhone location with him,” Ms Single told the court.
“She was unwilling to do this, but agreed. She occasionally turned it off, and she says Paul would ‘blow up’ at her about this.”
They attempted to continue their relationship while Thijssen was overseas.
But she said she started to find the relationship suffocating - after he sometimes sent her gelato via UberEats - and when she changed her social media profile picture to remove him, Thijssen called her from halfway around the world angry.
He obtained a visa to re-enter Australia that same day.
She was so concerned by his actions that she blocked him on social media, but he hacked into her social media account.
He then showed up unannounced at her church.
While sitting in a park, Freya told him she was breaking off their relationship, prompting Thijssen to punch a tree.
The court was told that when asked why he struck out, he responded: “Because I can’t punch the one thing I want to.”
Over the next two days, Paul was seen outside the girl’s house - including when she caught him peering inside at 6.25am.
The girl’s dad threatened to take out an AVO against him and warned him to stay away.
Just like he did with Freya, Thijssen acted angrily after Ms James ended their relationship, which had begun in mid to late August 2023.
Ms James ended their relationship on Friday, October 20, 2023 - four days before he killed her.
The court was told that he had asked for them to remain as being “friends with benefits” - a proposition she rejected.
THE LIES
When Thijssen returned to Sydney in 2023, he told his parents that he would be studying a Masters of Teaching at Sydney University.
His parents had agreed to pay his tuition - however his plans to study were a lie.
It’s a lie he repeated to his friends, St Andrew’s colleagues and flatmates.
He went to great lengths to carry on the charade, including at times pretending to do “uni work”.
When police began investigating Thijssen, they found the University of Sydney had no record of him having been enrolled there - nor at any other university in Sydney.
The court was also told that he forged a letter of reference from St Andrew’s Cathedral school which was provided to the Department of Home Affairs when applying to extend his working holiday visa.
The letter exaggerated how long he had worked at the school as well as his duties.
THE FAKE SNAPCHAT ACCOUNT
It was revealed during the inquest that in October 2023 that Thijssen had created a Snapchat account with the username: “Maddie1999xx”.
And while the account bore the name of a girl, records obtained by police showed that the account was linked to Thijssen’s number.
The account was seemingly named after a girl who Thijssen was speaking to at the time.
That day he sent the girl a message, asking if she wanted to meet up the next day - and she had no idea that Thijssen was around that time seeing Ms James.
Before she was killed, Ms James discovered the account after it was shown to her as a suggested contact.
The account was under the other girl’s name but showed a suggested contact of “Paul”.
Ms James told a friend that she had confronted Thijssen about the account.
The friend said she also had a conversation with Thijssen about it before he claimed “I have a stalker” and “that is so weird”.
The woman later said: “I was convinced it was Paul and I told him this, to which Paul responded, ‘No, why would I do that?’”
Thijssen later came back into the school gym and he had said that he had called and confronted the other girl, whose name was on the account.
Thijssen claimed that she was “crying” and said “she made the account to see what Lilie looked like”.
But Thijssen had created the account and when the girl was interviewed by police, she said she had no knowledge of it.
THE STALKING
Much like he had stalked Freya, Thijssen had followed his Ms James after she broke off their brief relationship.
On Saturday October 20 - a day after Ms James had told him she did not want to see him anymore - he drove to her house in Sydney’s south using a silver Yaris rented from GoGet.
GPS data from the car later obtained by police found he drove to her home and back between 9.55pm and 10.55pm.
When police found one of Thijssen’s phone following his suicide, they found a number of photos taken on the night.
They included photos of cars parked outside the James family home - some with notations such as “Outside house w/brothers car” and “Brothers car” and “Car one on other side”.
Over the next four days, he would stalk Ms James a total of seven occasions.
THE TRIPLE-0 CALL
At 7.14pm on Wednesday, October 25, Thijssen entered bathroom one in the sports area of St Andrew’s Cathedral School armed with a hammer.
Inside, Ms James was dressing having just finished a session coaching her water polo side and was preparing for a game of her own.
It is not known exactly what happened behind closed doors when Thijssen burst into the bathroom carrying a hammer.
A post-mortem found that Ms James was struck in the head and neck at least 25 times.
Her hair was so bloodied, that police initially believed the victim had black hair.
He stayed in the bathroom for one hour and 12 minutes before leaving and driving his rental car to Diamond Bay Reserve.
He stopped at 8.47pm and got out of his car at 9.04pm, only to return to his car where he transferred $9,100 to both of his flatmates with the notation “6 months rent”.
At 11.15pm he got out of his car and walked to the reserve with a backpack over his shoulder and 33 minutes later he called triple-0.
Ms Single described Thijssen as being “calm, almost emotionless” during the call.
During the call, he directed the operator to the bathroom within the sports department.
“When you go into the sports area, which is when you enter school through the reception on the left,” Thijssen said.
“And the bathroom’s then on the right in the sports area. It’s the first door on the right.”
At one point the operator asked when he was at the school, Thjissen said: “Um, I don’t remember.”
Asked his name, he says: “I’d rather not disclose.”
Before he ends the call, Thijssen says: “I think someone should just go in there before people arrive in the morning. Thank you.”
He returned to his car, where he sat for 10 minutes before getting and going into the reserve where he killed himself by jumping from the cliff.
CCTV showed police arriving at the scene at 12.02am - just three minutes after Thijssen got out of his car and walked off never to be seen alive again.
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