Killer filmed rehearsing school attack day Lilie James was murdered

CCTV also tracked Thijssen travelling home to Kensington at about 4pm that afternoon, where police believe he fetched a hammer from his flatmate’s toolkit. James was killed with a hammer, although it was never found. He didn’t use the one he bought from Mitre 10. It was among the 76 different hammers later found by investigators at St Andrews.

There was one moment that day when a mutual friend felt something was amiss. She was walking through Sydney Square, outside the school, and saw Thijssen and James at an outdoor table. He was staring “very intently at her, with one hand on her knee”, and his facial expression was “ice-cold, and angry”, Single quoted her as saying.

The woman was “confused and worried about what was happening. I saw Lilie had her face down on the ground and was crying, and not looking at Paul. I remember feeling scared at the time, I remember thinking his demeanour was unusual … I still regret not persisting with it to this day.”

The inquest heard that James and Thijssen had begun a casual relationship a few months earlier, but it had become strained after she spent time with another man and had contact with her former boyfriend, Lachlan. Thijssen was paranoid that James would spend time with her ex at a 21st party on the Friday night before she died, and became “sour” when she learnt he did.

She told Lachlan that night that she “didn’t feel safe with [Thijssen], and [was] a bit ‘weirded out’ by him,” Single quoted him as recalling. She told Lachlan she “wanted to cut things off with [Thijssen], and make it a complete break”. James and Lachlan were going to discuss it further the following Wednesday night.

But they never got the chance. That was the night Thijssen killed her.

James and Thijssen argued after the party that Friday night. It was then that James said she wanted to end the casual relationship.

“Following the argument, and then Paul finding out that Lilie had spent time with her ex at the party on Friday night, the evidence indicates that Paul started exhibiting extremely concerning behaviour,” said Single.

“We will never know when Paul decided he was going to kill Lillie, or himself, however his behaviour from the Saturday forms a course of conduct that culminated in the homicide.”

Most of Thijssen’s behaviour on the day of the murder was caught on CCTV, either at the school, or at shops, or when he made a trip to the car park where James usually parked her car. In the preceding days he used a share car, which is owned and monitored by the company Go Get, to travel to her house and repeatedly sit in front of it.

He seemed unfazed by the fact that his movements would be recorded. “This shows the brazen nature of Paul’s preparations that day,” Single said. “Paul has taken no steps at any time to conceal himself. He must have been aware of the CCTV cameras. At times, Paul appears to look up and directly at the cameras.”

The inquest also heard Thijssen had spied on a former girlfriend, who felt suffocated and controlled by him, forged his application for a working visa to the Department of Home Affairs, lied about doing a master’s in teaching, and made up a false Snapchat profile to pretend to colleagues that another woman was stalking him.

James’ parents attended the inquest. Thijssen’s did not, but gave statements to the Crown solicitors. No third parties were represented at the hearing, although St Andrews Cathedral School indicated it would oppose any attempt to publish CCTV footage from it grounds, citing security concerns about their layout and potential identification of students.

If you or anyone you know needs support, you can contact the National Sexual Assault, Domestic and Family Violence Counselling Service on 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), Lifeline 131 114, or Beyond Blue 1300 224 636.

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