A coronial inquest into the murder of Lilie James by her ex-boyfriend Paul Thijssen has found she died from multiple blunt force injuries in a premeditated homicide.
The 21-year-old’s death was “a result of homicide in the context of domestic violence and gendered violence”, the New South Wales state coroner, Teresa O’Sullivan, said when delivering her findings.
“The preparation was calculated and was not a momentary loss of control. It was a premeditated killing,” she said on Thursday.
James was murdered at St Andrew’s Cathedral school. Thijssen, 23, subsequently died after jumping or intentionally falling from cliffs with the intention of ending his life, O’Sullivan said.
In her recommendations, the coroner said there was an urgent need to address the use of emerging forms of technology in coercive control and intimate-partner violence. As well as tackling “technology-facilitated abuse”, there was a need to educate 16 to 24-year-olds, and young men in particular, about unacceptable behaviour, the coroner recommended.
“I am of the view that there are lessons to be learned from this tragic case,” she said.
The inquest examined the circumstances leading up to both deaths, and if there were any missed opportunities for intervention.
Across several days of hearings in March this year, the inquest heard that Thijssen stalked James, with whom he had been in a brief relationship. James had ended the relationship days before her death.
CCTV evidence showed him meticulously rehearsing how he would attack the university student and water polo coach at St Andrew’s, where they both worked. Thijssen had performed “dry runs” in the hours before the attack on Wednesday 25 October 2023.
Footage showed him practising lunging into different bathrooms with a hammer raised in alternate hands, before settling on the disabled bathroom where he would murder James. He waited in a staffroom for hours before James returned from water polo training with students at 7.11pm.
Sign up: AU Breaking News email
The inquest heard James was smiling and happy in the moments before her death, before she went to change into her swimmers in the bathroom earlier selected 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 lunging inside. He did not exit until over an hour later.
During that time, messages were sent from James’s phone to her father, saying: “Don’t ask why, or call, please come to the school now and pick me up.”
At 11.45pm, Thijssen made a triple zero call informing the operator there was a “body” at the school.
After James’s body was found with dozens of blunt force injuries to her neck and head, police began an immediate search for Thijssen. The inquest heard he had taken James’s phone and driven to Vaucluse.
Police were unable to locate the phone or Thijssen’s usual phone, instead finding a backpack with an older phone and clothes.
The inquest had the wider remit of examining what could be done to raise awareness about coercive control, particularly among young adults, as well as the role of technology.
O’Sullivan noted that while positive steps were being taken to educate younger children, “people aged 16-24 appear to fall between service gaps”, despite the group experiencing the highest levels of technology-facilitated abuse.
She drew attention to the fact that the records of James’s and Thijssen’s relationship were incomplete, because the two often communicated over disappearing messages on Snapchat, and their phones had not been recovered.
“The only material available consists of photos and messages Paul saved in his account.”
She said it appeared Thijssen had two mobile phones, an older iPhone 8 and his main iPhone 14. The coroner said his creation of a second “fake” Snapchat account appeared to be part of his attempts to stalk and control James.
She described how, when James sought to end the relationship, Thijssen used “a range of manipulative and emotionally abusive tactics to have the relationship continue” and assert dominance, including sharing an intimate photo of James with friends.
O’Sullivan said Thijssen’s use of Snapchat’s map feature to track James showed “the importance of individuals regularly reviewing their own technology practices, including their location sharing”.
She also recommended that the media avoid describing alleged intimate partner homicides as “out of character” until the full facts were known, as this risked reinforcing “unhelpful community stereotypes” and failed to place such homicides in the context of prior coercive control.
The coroner said the inquest heard there was an opportunity for friends to intervene and call Thijssen out. “However, this type of behaviour has been normalised, presenting a challenge in educating people to conceptualise these behaviours as coercive control,” O’Sullivan said on Thursday.
Thijssen was raised in the Netherlands and graduated from St Andrew’s in 2017. He worked for the school as an after-hours coordinator and sports coach.
Counsel assisting the coroner Jennifer Single SC said during the hearings that his Netherlands-based parents had liaised with lawyers to gather evidence that “showed how Paul’s life derailed over the last two years of his life”.
After her death, James, a sports business student at the University of Technology Sydney, was remembered by friends and colleagues for her “bright, bubbly personality”.
O’Sullivan acknowledged that the location of James’s murder 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 very much loved” young woman.
O’Sullivan expressed her sympathy to the family, saying they had been a “powerful presence in this court, their love and grief palpable”.
She drew attention to the more than 550 domestic violence homicides in NSW between 2000 and 2022, almost exclusively perpetrated by men. That figure represented one-third of all homicides during that period. She said James and Thissjen were the youngest case of intimate partner homicide-suicide in the NSW dataset.
“Lilie’s death is not an isolated tragedy. It is part of a devastating pattern of violence against women which requires urgent and sustained action.”
Speaking outside court on Thursday, James’s father, Jamie, said his daughter “had her life cut way too short”.
“Not a day goes by where we don’t think about her or wonder what we could have done to prevent [her death],” he said, standing alongside James’s mother, Peta.
“Please, if it’s been a while since you talked about violence or abuse against women, whether that’s at home, at work or with friends or in conversation – please, start that conversation.”
• In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women’s Aid. In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org
