‘Senseless and violent’: Coroner hands down findings into Lilie James homicide

WARNING: Graphic content

Lilie James’ murder at the hands of her former partner was a “senseless and violent” tragedy that occurred in a place where she was entitled to feel safe, a coroner has found.

Ms James, 21, was beaten to death with a hammer on the grounds of St Andrew’s Cathedral School in Sydney’s CBD in October 2023.

She was killed by her former boyfriend Paul Thijssen, 24, a teacher at the school who stalked and carefully planned the attack after Ms James had just days earlier broken off their brief relationship.

An inquest earlier this year examined her death at the hands of Thijssen, who took his own life in the hours afterwards by jumping from Diamond Bay Reserve at Vaucluse in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan on Thursday morning handed down her findings into Ms James and Thijssen’s death, making a raft of recommendations to tackle the scourge of domestic violence and partner homicide.

Ms James was killed when Thijssen burst into the bathroom where she was changing and bludgeoned her with a hammer on the evening of October 25, 2023.

The court was told that she died due to multiple blunt force injuries to the head and neck.

Ms O’Sullivan described Ms James’ homicide as a “senseless and violent death”.

The court previously heard Thijssen had stalked Ms James before killing her and carefully planned his attack, including doing several “dry runs” in the preceding days.

Vision aired at the inquest showed Thijssen, on the day of the killing, on three occasions practising quickly opening the door to the bathroom where he ultimately cornered and killed Ms James.

CCTV also showed Thijssen placing a “cleaning in progress sign” outside one bathroom, with the court hearing it was believed he did this to corral Ms James into the bathroom which he had selected to murder her.

In the moments before the killing, Thijssen locked the sliding doors using a key to ensure that the doors did not open when the automatic sensor went off.

In her findings, Ms O’Sullivan described Thijssen’s killing as “calculated” and “not a momentary loss of control”.

“This was a premeditated killing,” she said.

She said Ms James’ death caused a ripple of trauma, not just for her family and friends but for the wider school community.

The court was told that Thijssen likely chose the school because it was a place where he felt he could exert control over Ms James.

“It was a place where Lilie was entitled to feel safe,” Ms O’Sullivan said.

Ms James returned to the school on a bus with students on the evening of her murder, having coached a water polo game at Auburn.

She was captured on CCTV smiling and talking to Thijssen as she walked to the bathrooms where she was intending to change into a swimsuit for her own water polo game.

Thijssen was seen on security footage following her into the bathroom with the hammer in hand at 7.14pm.

It is not known exactly what happened inside the bathroom, but Thijssen stayed in there with Ms James’ dead body for more than an hour.

While in the bathroom, Thijssen took Ms James’ phone and used it to text her father.

“Don’t ask why or call, please come to the school now and pick me up,” the text said.

The message set off panic within the James family and her father raced to the school, while Thijssen exited the school and drove to Diamond Bay Reserve.

There, Thijssen called triple-0 to report “a body” at the school and took his own life.

Earlier this year, the inquest was told that in the six days leading up to the 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 them 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.

The court heard expert opinion that there was evidence of Thijssen having exhibited patterns of coercive control in his relationship with a former girlfriend and Ms James.

Ms O’Sullivan also made several recommendations, including further education to improve awareness of and to identify coercive control, including emerging forms of technology-facilitated abuse.

She said there was a need to reconsider technology that allowed people to share their locations with others.

She also recommended education about domestic violence and abusive relationships for young people in educational institutions and workplaces.

“There are lessons to be learned from these tragic circumstances,” Ms O’Sullivan said.

She described domestic violence as an “alarming and persistent scourge” and Ms James’ murder as not “isolated” and part of a “devastating pattern” that required urgent and sustained action.

More to come

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