Lilie James victim of ‘calculated premeditated killing’ by ex-boyfriend, coroner finds after inquest | New South Wales

The official investigation into the murder of Lilie James by her ex-boyfriend Paul Thijssen found that she died from multiple blunt force injuries in a premeditated murder.

Death of 21-year-old “was the result of domestic homicide”
violence and gender-based violence,” said New South Wales state coroner Teresa O’Sullivan, presenting her findings.

“The preparation was calculated and it was not a momentary loss of control. It was a pre-planned murder,” he said on Thursday.

James was murdered at St Andrew’s Cathedral school. O’Sullivan said Thijssen, 23, later died after jumping off a cliff or falling deliberately in an attempt to end his life.

The use of emerging forms of technology in coercive control and intimate partner violence needs to be urgently addressed, the coroner said. As well as tackling “technology-facilitated abuse”, the coroner recommended that young people aged 16 to 24, and particularly young men, should be educated about unacceptable behaviour.

“I believe there are lessons to be learned from this tragic event,” he said.

The investigation examined the circumstances that led to both deaths and whether there were missed opportunities for intervention.

Over several days of hearings in March this year, the inquest heard Thijssen pursued James, with whom she had a brief relationship. James had ended the relationship days before her death.

CCTV evidence showed he meticulously rehearsed how he would attack the college student and the water polo coach at St Andrew’s, where they both worked. Thijssen had conducted a “trial” in the hours before the attack on Wednesday, October 25, 2023.

In the footage, he can be seen practicing lunging into different bathrooms with a hammer held up in different hands, before deciding on the disabled toilet where he would kill James. James waited in the staff room for hours until he returned from water polo practice with the students at 7.11pm.

The inquest heard James was smiling and happy in the moments before his death before going to put on his swimsuits in the bathroom chosen by Thijssen. He had placed a “cleaning in progress” sign in front of another bathroom.

CCTV showed Thijssen standing outside the bathroom for two minutes before going inside. He didn’t come out until more than an hour later.

During this time, messages were sent from James’ phone to his father, saying: “Don’t ask why, call, please come to school now and pick me up.”

At 11.45pm, Thijssen made a triple zero call, informing the operator that a “body” had been found at the school.

Police immediately began searching for Thijssen after James’ body was found with dozens of blunt force wounds to his neck and head. The inquest heard James took his phone and went to Vaucluse.

Police could not find the phone or Thijssen’s usual phone, but instead found an old phone and a backpack containing clothes.

The scope of the inquiry was to examine what could be done to raise awareness of the role of coercive control and technology, particularly among young adults.

O’Sullivan pointed out that records of James and Thijssen’s relationship were missing because the pair frequently communicated through disappearing Snapchat messages and their phones could not be recovered.

“The only material available consists of photos and messages Paul saved to his account.”

He said Thijssen had two mobile phones, an old iPhone 8 and his main phone, an iPhone 14. She said creating a second Snapchat account appeared to be part of her attempts to track and control James.

She noted that after James tried to end the relationship, Thijssen used “a range of manipulative and emotionally abusive tactics to continue the relationship,” including sharing an intimate photo of James with his friends.

The coroner said the inquest heard his friends had the opportunity to intervene and summon him. “However, this type of behavior has become normalized, which poses a challenge in educating people to conceptualize these behaviors as coercive control,” O’Sullivan said in a statement on Thursday.

The inquest heard of rising tensions in Thijssen and James’ short-lived relationship. Security cameras of the argument between the two showed Thijssen pushing James while speaking aggressively.

The inquest heard Thijssen appeared stressed the following evening when James went to a party attended by his former partner. He frequently checked her location via Snapchat and appeared “angry and cranky” on the way home.

James allegedly told his former partner that night that he didn’t feel safe around Thijssen and was being “made weird” by him.

The inquest heard Thijssen stalked and intimidated an ex-girlfriend who was trying to end their relationship, hacking into her Snapchat account and punching a tree above her head.

Thijssen grew up in the Netherlands and graduated from St Andrew’s in 2017. He worked as an after-hours coordinator and sports coach at the school.

Lawyer Jennifer Single SC, assisting the coroner, said during the hearings that his parents, who live in the Netherlands, had met with lawyers to gather evidence “showing how Paul went off the rails in the last two years of his life”.

James, a sports management student at the University of Technology Sydney, was remembered by friends and colleagues for his “bright, cheerful personality” following his death. He worked as a water polo and swimming coach at St Andrew’s.

O’Sullivan acknowledged that the location where James was killed created “the potential for vicarious trauma among students and staff, past and present.”

The James family, who attended the inquest on Thursday, described their daughter and sister as a “vibrant, outgoing and much-loved” young woman.

O’Sullivan expressed his deepest condolences to the family, saying they were “a powerful presence in this court and their love and pain is strong.”

It highlighted more than 550 domestic violence homicides in NSW between 2000 and 2022. This figure represented one-third of all murders during that period. He said James and Thissjen was the youngest case of intimate partner murder-suicide in the NSW dataset.

“Lilie’s death is not an isolated tragedy. It is part of a devastating pattern of violence against women that requires urgent and sustained action.”

Speaking outside the coroner’s court on Thursday alongside James’ mother Peta and father Jamie, he said their daughter’s “life had been cut too short”.

“Not a day goes by that we don’t think about it or wonder what we could have done to prevent it. [her death].

“Please, if it has been a while since you have talked about violence or abuse against women, whether at home, at work, with friends or in conversation, please start that conversation.”