An inquest into the murder of Lilie James is expected to hear from her family on Thursday.
Ms James, 21, died when she was brutally beaten with a hammer on the grounds of St Andrew’s Cathedral School in Sydney’s CBD on October 25, 2023 in a crime that shocked the country.
She was killed by her former casual lover and fellow teacher at the school, Paul Thijssen, 24, who killed himself at Diamond Bay Reserve in Vaucluse in the hours afterwards.
Details of how Thijssen, a Dutch national, had stalked Ms James in the days leading up to her death and had practised dry runs of her murder have been revealed during a coronial inquest into their deaths.
The court was told that Ms James had broken off their brief casual relationship in the days leading up to her being murdered.
On the third and final day of the inquest on Thursday, the court is expected to hear a statement from Ms James’s family as well as eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant.
THE FINAL MOMENTS
CCTV footage shown to the inquest on Wednesday revealed some of the final moments of Ms James’s life before it was taken from her in an act of unspeakable violence.
Footage shows her arriving back at the school and walking through the hallways, chatting to Thijssen as she headed to the bathroom.
As she enters the door, he calls out to her before she disappears into the bathroom, never to be seen again.
The CCTV did not capture the attack inside the bathroom.
It did show Thijssen moving towards the door and lingering outside for a moment as he seemingly listened to what was happening inside.
He removes the hammer from a backpack, switches it into his right hand and charges inside at 7.14pm.
“No matter how many times you view that footage, it is not easy to watch,” Counsel assisting Jennifer Single SC said, noting that Ms James was smiling as she interacted with Thijssen.
“There was no indication of what he was going to do,” Ms Single said.
The court was told how Thijssen swiped an access card to lock a sliding door into a gymnasium area to ensure he would not be disturbed during the horrific attack.
Ms Single told the court there was so much blood in Ms James’s hair, police initially thought the victim was Asian and had black hair.
This led police to believe that Ms James was either being held against her will or was an accomplice of Thijssen.
This was also because Thijssen had taken Ms James’s phone, which was also pinging at Diamond Bay Reserve.
Her body was positively identified several hours later and the school was closed for two days.
Thijssen’s body was discovered in the water 32 hours after his death.
A post-mortem found that Ms Thijssen was struck in the head and neck at least 25 times.
‘COERCIVE CONTROL’
Forensic psychologist Katie Seidler and psychiatrist Danny Sullivan both told the court on Wednesday that they couldn’t say why the killing occurred and could not diagnose a mental health disorder.
Dr Seidler described Thijssen as having characteristics of a “brittle narcissist” and “a man who couldn’t cope with how he was feeling and neutralised this threat that by killing her”.
Dr Sullivan concluded “he formed a hatred of Ms James based on the fact she rejected him and he punished her by killing her”.
Dr Seidler told the court that she believed Thijssen had a “vulnerable and fragile sense of self” who “thought of himself as inadequate and unworthy”.
She believed he would have “really struggled with how people viewed him if Lilie rejected him and ended their relationship”.
Dr Seidler and Dr Sullivan both told the court there was evidence of Thijssen having exhibited patterns of coercive control in his relationship with a former girlfriend and Ms James.
They raised him using the Find My iPhone feature to track the ex-girlfriend’s movements and after she had attempted to break up with him while he was in his native Netherlands, he had applied for a visa to re-enter Australia on the same day.
The court was told that Thijssen stalked Ms James on seven occasions in the lead-up to her death, driving to her home and taking photos of the cars in the street.
Thijssen called her repeatedly and showed up outside a party and waited outside so he could pick her up so she would not go home with her ex-boyfriend.
