EXCLUSIVE
The school where 21-year-old Lilie James was tragically murdered last week will demolish the gym where the young water polo coach was brutally beaten to death.
The gruesome crime scene left by killer Paul Thijssen, 24, will be razed to the ground in the wake of the murder, an email to parents of students at St Andrew’s Cathedral School reveals.
Thijssen is believed to have lured Ms James to the gym on the pretext of her returning sports equipment to him and then attacked her with a hammer in the gym bathroom just after 7pm last Wednesday.
Police and school staff made the appalling discovery of her body after Thijssen allegedly confessed his crime in a Triple-0 call.
The school head’s email said the gym, closed since the incident and blocked off from the rest of the school, would remain behind barriers until the demolition work was done.
Lilie James was found brutally murdered in the gym at St Andrews Cathedral School in the Sydney CBD
The gruesome crime scene left by killer Paul Thijssen in the bathroom of the school gym will be razed to the ground in the wake of the murder, an email to school parents reveals (pictured: the gym hall)
In the wake of the murder and the overwhelming response by teachers and students, a mountain of flowers, cards and gifts have been left at the school.
The tributes were visited this week by Lilie’s family – including parents Jamie and Peta and brother Max – who inspected the heartfelt messages written about their beloved daughter.
‘As with every time I have spoken with them, they showed their deep concern and compassion for how our students are coping at this time,’ school principal Dr Julie McGonigle said in a message to parents on Friday.
‘That in itself is a testament to the calibre of the family, please continue to uphold them in your prayers.’
Dr McGonigle said the memorial of flowers would remain in place at the school for the rest of the week, before it is removed to the memorial gardens at Kirrikee, south of Sydney.
In the wake of the murder and the overwhelming response by teachers and students, a mountain of flowers, cards and gifts have been left at the school
She also thanked teachers for shepherding students through their HSC exams ‘in unimaginable circumstances’.
Ms James had broken off a fledgling, five-week romance with Thijssen in the days before her death.
Investigators now believe the sickening crime was premediated after it emerged the baby-faced killer bought a hammer and borrowed a car before luring Ms James to her death.
It’s understood the hammer was not the one used to kill Ms James. Police believe Thijssen had two hammers, the other of which may have come from a school storeroom.
He drove a borrowed 2003 Lexus sedan to work on the day Ms James died. A source close to the investigation told the Daily Telegraph that the car would have allowed the sports co-ordinator to ‘get away quickly afterwards’.
He also called police four hours after Ms James was killed inside the gym bathroom to let them know she was there.
‘Informant says there is a body in a bathroom on the right-hand side in reception area. Through reception and to the left. Informant says he was there a couple of hours ago. Female body,’ the emergency operator stated.
It comes as exclusive photos revealed the inside of Thijssen’s house just hours after he is believed to have murdered Ms James.
Photos of his messy bedroom show a pile of pills, a broken cupboard, a half-used toilet roll and clothes strewn across the floor.
Thijssen, a former St Andrews school graduate who grew up in the Netherlands, moved into the cramped semi-detached house in Kensington in southeastern Sydney in August with a young female flatmate and a fellow male hockey player.
Neighbours said the three flatmates were courteous but ‘kept to themselves’ and weren’t aware of Thijssen’s identity until the horrific events of October 25.
Leading criminal psychologist Tim Watson Munro told Thijssen was a control freak who demonstrated ‘next level cruelty’.
Paul Thijssen’s bedroom, hours after he murdered Lilie James, contained a Dutch ‘Stag’ brand hockey shirt on top of a rolled-up doona, tablets including paracetamol and Nurofen and a men’ shaver on the bed. Thijssen moved into the house in August
Paul Thijssen’s body is wheeled towards a mortuary van after being recovered from rocks below Diamond Bay reserve on Friday afternoon
‘He knew exactly what he was doing,’ the renowned crime expert said.
‘These kind of guys are bad, they’re not mad.
‘This doesn’t appear to have been a spontaneous act of violence. There’s clear intention – if you take a weapon to a meeting, you may use it.’
Last Friday morning, tradesmen working on the coastal cliff walkway spotted a body wedged in the rocks below where it was believed to have washed up after Thijssen jumped from Diamond Bay reserve.
Thijssen’s parents made the grim decision on Wednesday not to return his remains to their native Netherlands, and will instead have him cremated before scattering his ashes in Sydney.
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