Lilie James was unrecognisable after brutal murder
Lilie James’ final moments were captured on CCTV minutes before she was brutally murdered by her ex-partner.
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Lilie James’ killer took her mobile and texted her father pretending to be the much-loved coach just moments after bludgeoning her to death inside a Sydney school, an inquest has been told.
Ms James, 21, died when she was beaten with a hammer on the grounds of St Andrew’s Cathedral School in Sydney’s CBD on October 25, 2023 in a crime that shocked the country.
She was killed by her former boyfriend and fellow teacher at the school, Paul Thijssen, 24, who killed himself in Vaucluse in the hours afterwards.
Details of how Thijssen, a Dutch national, had stalked Ms James in the days leading up to her death inside a school bathroom and had practised dry runs of her murder have been revealed during a coronial inquest into their deaths.
The court has heard that Ms James had broken off their brief casual relationship in the days leading up to her being murdered.
‘COERCIVE CONTROL’
Forensic psychologist Dr Katie Seidler and psychiatrist Dr Danny Sullivan both told the inquest on Wednesday they couldn’t say why the killing occurred and could not diagnose Thijssen as having a mental health disorder.
Dr Seidler described Thijssen as having characteristics of a “brittle narcissist” and “a man who couldn’t cope with how he was feeling and neutralised this threat that by killing her”.
Dr Sullivan concluded: “He formed a hatred of Ms James based on the fact she rejected him and he punished her by killing her.”
Dr Seidler told the court that she believed Thijssen had a “vulnerable and fragile sense of self” who “thought of himself as inadequate and unworthy”.
She believed he would have “really struggled with how people viewed him if Lilie rejected him and ended their relationship.”
Dr Seidler and Dr Sullivan both told the court there was evidence of Thijssen having exhibited patterns of coercive control in his relationship with a former girlfriend and Ms James.
They raised the fact he had used the Find My iPhone feature to track the ex-girlfriend’s movements.
The court has heard that Thijssen stalked Ms James on seven occasions in the lead up to her death, driving to her home and taking photos of the cars in the street.
Both Dr Seidler highlighted the fact that Thijssen had called Ms James repeatedly and showed up outside a party and waited for her so she would not go home with her ex-boyfriend.
“WHERE ARE YOU”
The court heard Thijssen stayed inside the bathroom for one hour and 12 minutes after the attack.
While Thijssen was inside the bathroom, cleaners attempted to gain access to the sports area where the bathroom was housed.
But because Thijssen had locked the door, they could not enter.
After the attack, Thijssen took her phone and texted Ms James’ father Jamie pretending to be Lilie.
The text read: “Don’t ask why or call please come to the school now and pick me up.”
“Are you okay,” Lilie’s father replied.
“All good just came (sic) trouble,” Thijssen again texted, pretending to be Jamie.
“Can you pick up the phone please,” Mr James replied.
In subsequent messages he wrote: “Where are you” and “I’m here”.
“I’D RATHER NOT SAY”
The court was also played Thijssen’s triple-0 call which he made after leaving school and arriving at Diamond Bay Reserve.
Ms Single described Thijssen as being “calm, almost emotionless” during the call.
“Hi Katrina, I would like to report a body in St Andrew’s Cathedral School in Sydney CBD,” Thijssen said on the call.
During the call, he directed the operator to the bathroom within the sports department at the school.
“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, Thijssen said: “Um, I don’t remember.”
Asked his name, Thijssen 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.”
At 11.59pm, CCTV captured Thijssen getting out of his car and entering the reserve, never to be seen again.
Police arrived at the scene three minutes later, looking for Thijssen after locating the area where he made the triple-0 call from.
Around the same time, Ms James’ body was discovered by police.
The court heard there was so much blood in Ms James’ hair, police initially thought the victim was Asian and had black hair, the court was told.
This led to police to believe that Ms James was either being held against her will or was an accomplice of Thijssen’s.
This was also because Thijssen had taken Ms James’ phone, which was pinging alongside his at Diamond Bay Reserve.
Her body was positively identified several hours later and the school was closed for two days.
Thijssen’s body was discovered in the water 32 hours after he jumped from the cliff.
A post-mortem found that Ms James was struck in the head and neck at least 25 times.
THE KILLING
Footage played to the inquest on Wednesday showed Ms James arriving back at the school on the evening of October 25 and walking through the hallways, chatting to Thijssen as she headed to the bathroom.
As she entered the door, he called out to her before she disappears into the bathroom, never to be seen again.
The CCTV did not capture the attack inside the bathroom.
It did show Thijssen moving towards the door and lingering outside for a moment, as he seemingly listened to what was happening inside.
He removes the hammer from a backpack, switches it into his right hand and charges inside at 7.14pm.
“No matter how many times you view that footage, it is not easy to watch,” Counsel assisting Jennifer Single SC said, noting that Ms James was smiling as she interacted with Thijssen.
“There was no indication of what he was going to do,” Ms Single said.
Before the attack, the footage showed Thijssen swipe an access card to lock a sliding door into a gymnasium area to ensure he would not be disturbed during the horrific attack.
CCTV
Separate footage played to the inquest on Wednesday showed Thijssen earlier on October 25 - the day of the murder - walking around the St Andrew’s Cathedral School grounds wearing a black tracksuit.
In the CCTV footage, he picks up a bag and casually walks towards the bathroom where Lilie was ultimately killed.
Standing in front of the toilet doors, he switches the hammer from one hand to the next as he practises charging in through the door.
On two occasions he did a dry run of the horrific crime which he would hours later commit.
In a chilling section of the video, Thijssen stared directly into the camera.
Counsel assisting Jennifer Single told the court on Wednesday that moments earlier, Thijssen had run to a nearby car park to ensure that Ms James was still at the school and had not left after water polo training.
‘PRACTISE’
The court was also told that Thijssen had stalked a previous girlfriend after he was found in the early morning outside the home.
He had also forged documents which were provided to the Department of Home Affairs when applying to extend his working holiday visa.
Footage played to the court on Tuesday showed Thijssen - on the day of the murder - on three occasions practising quickly opening the door to the bathroom where he ultimately cornered and killed Ms James.
Counsel assisting Jennifer Single SC told the inquest the vision showed Thijssen “practising how he is going to enter the bathroom” during the attack.
The vision tracked Thijssen and his movements around the school on the afternoon of October 25 including placing a “cleaning in progress sign” outside one bathroom.
Ms Single told the court that Thijssen did this to coral her into the bathroom he had selected to murder her
“Your Honour, it is submitted that after practising entering both bathrooms, Paul had by this stage decided to attack Lilie in bathroom one,” Ms Single told the court.
“We submit that Paul placed the cleaning in progress sign outside of bathroom three, to ensure Lillie did not use that bathroom, and to force her into the larger disabled bathroom where the attack in fact occurred.”
STALKING
The court was told on Tuesday that in the six days leading up to the other murder, Thijssen stalked Ms James on seven occasions - driving to her house in Sydney’s south in a hired car before returning home to Kensington.
On several occasions, he took photographs of cars which were parked outside her family home.
Photos shown to the court revealed that Thijssen captioned the photos with descriptions of the car.
On another occasion, CCTV captured him driving to Allawah train station, where he stayed for an hour, with further vision showing Ms James getting off at the same station.
Further vision also showed Thijssen buying a hammer and duct tape at a York St hardware store on Monday October 10, 2023.
The hammer was not used by him during the attack and was later found in a school store room.
The inquest before coroner Teresa O’Sullivan continues.
Originally published as Lilie James was unrecognisable after brutal murder
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