Paul Thijssen has been pictured just moments before he launched his premeditated and violent attack on Lilie James in a gym bathroom.
The 24-year-old struck the water polo coach in the head with a hammer at least 25 times inside a bathroom at St Andrew’s Cathedral School in Sydney on October 25, 2023.
Ms James, 21, had ended her casual two-month relationship with Thijssen five days before she was killed in the bathroom.
In new material released by the NSW Coroner’s Court on Thursday, CCTV shows Thijssen on a practice run outside the bathroom at 1.30pm on October 25 – about six hours before he murdered Ms James.
Never-before-seen CCTV also shows Thijssen waiting outside the bathroom just before killing Ms James that evening, and buying a hammer and duct tape from a Mitre 10 hardware store near the school two days before the murder.
Before the chilling attack, Thijssen was captured practising holding a hammer in his left and right hand and going over how he would ambush her.
CCTV inside the school showed Thijssen repeatedly going to two different bathrooms – ‘bathroom one and bathroom three’ – near the school gym and on three occasions rehearsing his entry by forcing the door open.
He did that twice with his right hand and on the third occasion with his left hand – to practise as if he had a hammer in his right.
In the most calculated of all his moves, just before 5pm and only about two hours before he committed the murder, Thijssen went to the bathrooms carrying a yellow ‘cleaning in progress’ sign.
This was because by then, Thijssen had chosen the larger, disabled bathroom, called ‘bathroom one’ as the place he would murder Ms James.
By placing the ‘cleaning’ sign outside ‘bathroom three’, Ms James was forced to use bathroom one later that evening.
Domestic violence expert Anna Butler told an inquest on Wednesday that patterns of coercive control were evident throughout their short relationship.
When Ms James had previously tried to break up with Thijssen, he used abusive, derogatory and gaslighting language to negate her autonomy.
He escalated his emotionally abusive behaviour when he shared an intimate image of her with friends and stalked her after she expressed doubts about their relationship.
Ms Butler said Thijssen felt growing anger and resentment that he no longer controlled their status so he used a cache of well-honed manipulative tactics to try to regain control.
Noting that some of the behaviour around jealousy and location-sharing in relationships has been normalised, Ms Butler said it was an opportunity for his friends to call out his increasingly problematic behaviour.
Yet forensic psychologist Katie Seidler noted Thijssen had no history of aggression and there was probably nothing that could have been done to prevent the gender-based violence.
Although the 24-year-old wielded coercive control in his relationships, she found there were no obvious warning signs or indicators of violence to predict the tragic outcome.
Dr Seidler theorised Thijssen killed his ex-girlfriend because he was terrified the break-up would unravel his facade of perfection.
She believed he had a fragile sense of self and saw himself as inadequate and unworthy, which led him to lie to create a flawless public image.
Issues of coercive control and unacceptable behaviour in relationships are being examined by the inquest into the deaths of Ms James and Thijssen, who died hours after his ex-girlfriend.
Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan is assessing whether his death was self-inflicted.
The inquest will also hear statements from Ms James’ family as it draws to a close on Thursday.
More to come…