Australia - Sydney, Lilie James, water polo coach, murdered at elite school, assassin sports assistant Paul Thijssen suicided, 25 Oct 2023

[imstilla.grandma]

Single said they had a brief relationship, which James ended days before her death. “In the days after [she broke up with him] … the evidence indicates that Paul stalked Lilie, Paul carefully planned his attack, and that in the hours before the attack, he rehearsed the attack, making a number of dry runs,” she says.

“The preparation was calculated. It was not a momentary loss of control. It was a premeditated killing.”

‘The preparation was calculated’: Killer rehearsed murder of Lilie James

Paul Thijssen carefully planned his brutal attack, making several dry runs before he murdered the St Andrew’s Cathedral School sports coach, an inquest has heard.

www.smh.com.au

 

[Trooper]

Ex-boyfriend rehearsed murder of Sydney school coach Lilie James with ‘dry runs’, inquest hears

Dutch national Paul Thijssen killed St Andrew’s Cathedral school water polo coach in October 2023 before killing himself in Sydney’s eastern suburbs

www.theguardian.com

Paul Thijssen forged documents for his visa, lied about his studies and meticulously rehearsed the murder of 21-year-old water polo coach Lilie James, including by staging “dry runs”, a coronial inquest into their deaths has heard.

“The preparation was calculated. It was not a momentary loss of control. It was a premeditated killing,” Single said.

Single outlined escalating tensions in the relationship between Thijssen and James, with the court shown CCTV footage of an argument between the pair in the days before the water polo coach was murdered. During the argument, which lasted for about five minutes inside one of the school’s buildings, Thijssen shoved and cornered James as he spoke aggressively.

 

[Trooper]

Ex-boyfriend rehearsed murder of Sydney school coach Lilie James with ‘dry runs’, inquest hears

Dutch national Paul Thijssen killed St Andrew’s Cathedral school water polo coach in October 2023 before killing himself in Sydney’s eastern suburbs

www.theguardian.com

Thijssen’s Netherlands-based parents did not attend the inquest, but had liaised with lawyers assisting the coroner, stating they had gathered evidence that “showed how Paul’s life derailed over the last two years of his life”, Single said.

He returned to Australia several times after that, each time on a working holiday visa, which can only be issued three times to an individual.


( I had wondered how he got the job, or, alternatively, why the school employed him, I thought they must have done it illegally, or thru old school ties or something... but no .. he was forging documents right and left..)

 

[Trooper]

Chilling footage shows ex-boyfriend waiting outside bathroom with hammer before murdering Lilie James

Counsel assisting NSW inquest says CCTV footage of Paul Thijssen in hours before attack at Sydney school ‘not easy to watch’

www.theguardian.com

""
Chilling footage viewed on day two of the inquest showed Thijssen meticulously planning the attack – including locking the doors to the gym and practising the assault several times.

He was shown entering the bathroom with the hammer in his right hand, then exiting and trying again, this time with the hammer in his left hand, seemingly attempting to choose how he would stage the attack.

“No matter how many times you see that footage, it is not easy to watch,” Single told the court.

The footage shows Thijssen – who worked at the school as a sports coach and after-hours coordinator – waiting in the gym staffroom for hours before James returned from water polo training with students on a bus.

He is twice seen checking that her car had remained in the car park near the school and that he had not missed her return.

Thijssen is also seen using a school master key to lock automatic doors to prevent cleaners being able to access the gym so his attack would not be disturbed.

 

[drsleuth]

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-nsw/day-two-of-coronial-inquest-into-brutal-school-killing-of-lilie-james/news-story/86b55a1cafd75bab780975116fedb9ba?amp

The shocking extent of Lilie James’ injuries has been revealed, with a court hearing that she was not “immediately identifiable” when her bludgeoned body was discovered by police.

 

[drsleuth]

I'm glad to see the Coroners Court is holding this inquest & that Lillie's murder is not just being ticked off as another woman murdered by an ex.

 

[drsleuth]

The twisted reason for evil killer's frenzied hammer attack

GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING. Details of how Lilie James, 21, was bludgeoned to death in a bathroom at a Sydney school has been shared during the second day of an inquest into her death.

www.dailymail.co.uk

They said Thissjen's actions could not be blamed on any mental health disorder.

'The lie he was living… lying at work, suggests he was controlled, had constructed a narrative and wanted to convey a particular impression to the world and there were threats to that narrative that he was not the person he purported to be,' Dr Sullivan said.


Aww got his feelings hurt .............COWARD

 

[Trooper]

The twisted reason for evil killer's frenzied hammer attack

GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING. Details of how Lilie James, 21, was bludgeoned to death in a bathroom at a Sydney school has been shared during the second day of an inquest into her death.

www.dailymail.co.uk

They said Thissjen's actions could not be blamed on any mental health disorder.

'The lie he was living… lying at work, suggests he was controlled, had constructed a narrative and wanted to convey a particular impression to the world and there were threats to that narrative that he was not the person he purported to be,' Dr Sullivan said.


Aww got his feelings hurt .............COWARD

For sure he was lying at work, but I suspect that school was deficient in due diligence, .. ... he forged his visa, his work resume, his travel docs, .. but he could not forge a tax certificate. The admin at the school would be paying his wage, and deducting his tax and nagging him for his tax file number, which they have to send into the Tax Office..... Which he could not produce. But they kept him on..

So, like a hell of a lot of killers, he was also a petty criminal and a thief.. It goes with the territory..

Although he had money, his parents had deposited his fees at UNI for a degree course, that must have been a reasonable sum .. that was still in his account..

 

[Trooper]

Lilie James’ ex-boyfriend attempted to control, manipulate and gaslight her before murder, experts say

Paul Thijssen stalked 21-year-old water polo coach as she ‘attempted to push back against his control’, court hears

www.theguardian.com

'''
“She was trying to set boundaries in terms of the relationship, and was trying to extricate herself from the relationship,” Butler said.

“And he partook in behaviours that denied her autonomy and agency in attempting to leave. He utilised manipulative and emotionally abusive tactics to erase her sense of self. He gaslit her and used derogatory language as she attempted to push back against his control.”

''''
Fitz-Gibbon suggested Thijssen’s loss of “control over many aspects of his life” was a likely “trigger point” – “where a perpetrator moves from beyond managing and trying to obtain or retain control within a relationship, and moves to that post separation escalation”.

She pointed to the exposure of a fake Snapchat account created by Thijssen in the days before James’s murder as a key moment. Thijssen created the account in the name of an acquaintance he was flirting with, outside of his relationship with James.

The account was uncovered by James and a friend, and put to Thijssen, who falsely claimed that the acquaintance had created the account to stalk him.


“He moves to a stage where he has lost control of so many aspects of his life. And we see that around the lies, around education. We see that around the visa challenges that he is facing, around the Snapchat account that he sets up and has discovered,” Fitz-Gibbon told the inquest.

“Humiliation is a particularly challenging emotion for someone who is trying to control the aspects of their lives to face.”

 

[Trooper]

What can one say? awful.