Paul Thijssen was a psychopath who “knew exactly what he was doing” when he took a hammer to a school and murdered Sydney water polo instructor Lilie James, a top criminal psychologist has claimed.
A former student at St Andrew’s Cathedral school where the murder took place last week, Thijssen’s fatal attack was not a spontaneous act of violence.
Instead, it was a premeditated crime for which he had a clear intention, Tim Watson-Munro told news.com.au.
“These men know what they’re doing. They’re not insane, they’re aware of the time, place and person,” the expert said following the killing just after midnight last Wednesday.
“There’s a degree of planning and they often build up to it,” he said, acknowledging that like in the case of Ms James, it was “very unusual to break up and get killed straight away”.
Ms James, 21, was reportedly beaten to death with a hammer before being found with “serious head injuries” in the school’s gym bathroom.
Thijssen is understood to have sent a text to Ms James’ dad from her phone after she was killed. Pretending to be his victim, he messaged asking to be picked up.
The twisted act, which came before Thijssen drove to Vaucluse in the city’s east – where he was later found dead – was described by Mr Watson-Munro as extreme cruelty.
The psychologist, who has served as an expert witness in criminal cases to determine if the accused was legally insane, said the lengths Thijssen went to before, during and after his murder made him seem like a psychopath.
There is typically a pattern of escalating conduct throughout the course of a relationship that ends in one person being murdered, he said.
“It’s normally characterised by coercive control, emotional control, physical control, financial control… demanding they see less of their family or cut them off entirely, questioning their work or demanding they quit, and sharing bank accounts so they can control their money.”
Women didn’t enter relationships with these men “thinking they were going to end up where they are”, he said, but “degree by degree they get used to what’s going on”.
“Often these guys love bomb them, shower them with affection, gifts, chocolates and jewellery, and at some point, the relationship shifts,” he explained.
“The underlying thing is that the men are very insecure and feel the need to control.”
Some women successfully leave these relationships but many unfortunately don’t.
A body that may have been Thijssen’s was recovered from the cliffs at Vaucluse Friday afternoon, with police finding an abandoned backpack nearby and the murder weapon in a bin.
The delay in alerting police to Ms James, in combination with his own death, were factors that added to Mr Watson-Munro’s impression of Thijssen as a psychopath.
The expert said similar patterns had been prevalent in similar cases he had looked at.
More Australian women are being killed by their former partners than ever before – it used to be about one a week but this year has far exceeded that, and it’s not even December yet.
More needs to be done to protect women, Mr Watson-Munro said, adding they were typically most at risk of homicide when they decided to leave their partner.
“Five women are being killed in domestic homicide every 10 days in this country,” he said.
“It’s very troubling.”
Women needed to be better aware of the warning signs and leave relationships in which they were present, Mr Watson-Munro said.
Stronger application of AVOs were crucial too, he added, however even those didn’t all perpetrators.
“A lot of men, if they’re really serious, they don’t care about that. They’ll breach the orders and sometimes with deadly consequences.”