Lilie James was smiling and happy in the moments before Paul Thijssen used a hammer to murder his ex-girlfriend in a school gymnasium toilet, a coronial inquest examining their deaths has been told.
James’s body was found with serious head injuries in a gym toilet at St Andrew’s Cathedral school after water polo training with students on 25 October 2023.
Police immediately began a search for 23-year-old Thijssen, who had been in a brief relationship with James that had ended days before the water polo coach’s death. His body was found in the ocean below cliffs in Sydney’s eastern suburbs days later.
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 attack 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.
The counsel assisting the New South Wales coroner, Jennifer Single SC, said the footage was “not easy to watch”.
“No matter how many times you see that footage, it is not easy to watch,” she told the court on Wednesday.
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.
James returned from training at 7.11pm with Single stating she was “smiling and interacting with Paul”.
“There was no indication as to what he was going to do,” Single said, her voice breaking.
James was due at a water polo match that night and had returned to the gym to change into her swimmers.
She is seen entering the staff room and then heading to the bathroom with her swimmers. She is seen acknowledging a sign saying one of the bathrooms was being cleaned and heading into the bathroom next door.
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Thijssen had placed the sign there earlier to ensure James entered the bathroom of his choosing.
With James in the bathroom, Thijssen is seen returning to the staff room and picking up his backpack. He walks over to the bathroom with the hammer in his right hand.
He stands outside the bathroom for two minutes – seemingly listening to what is happening inside. He is then seen lunging forward and into the toilet.
Thijssen was raised in the Netherlands and had initially come to Australia with his parents between 2015 and 2017. He became sports captain and prefect at St Andrew’s.
He had returned several times to Australia before the attack, with the court hearing that when another former girlfriend attempted to break things off with Thijssen, he had stalked and intimidated her, hacked into her Snapchat account and punched a tree above her head.
The court heard on Tuesday that Thijssen stalked and meticulously planned James’s murder after tensions between the two escalated amid the breakdown of their relationship.
The inquest continues.
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In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org
Source: www.theguardian.com