EXCLUSIVE
An upcoming 60 Minutes story about a young water polo coach beaten to death by her ex-boyfriend at a Sydney private school is so disturbing that parents are being urged not to let their children watch it.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal the principal of St Andrew’s Cathedral School, where Lilie James was brutally murdered a year ago by fellow coach and former lover Paul Thijssen, has issued a dire warning over the confrontational episode.
The popular 21-year-old’s ‘unrecognizable’ body was found with horrific head injuries in the gym toilets of the elite inner-city school just before midnight on October 25, 2023, after her father received a text message asking him to to come pick up. upwards.
Although the text was sent from Ms James’ phone, it is believed to have been written by Thijssen at the time he brutally beat her to death with a hammer.
60 Minutes will air for the first time this Sunday an interview with Ms James’ parents, in which the gruesome details of their daughter’s murder are publicly discussed.
“If you knew what he did that night, I think you would understand why we … why we can’t forgive what he did,” Ms. James’ mother, Peta, tells 60 Minutes star reporter Tara Brown in an online clip. promote the story.
“The monster followed her into the bathroom,” says her father, Jamie.
Lilie James was brutally beaten to death by her ex-boyfriend in the toilets of an elite inner-city private school in Sydney a year ago.
Paul Thijssen then used his victim’s mobile phone to send a text message to her father asking him to come to the school to pick her up.
Brown questioned the couple about the text that led to the discovery of their daughter’s battered body.
“Do you now believe that text message was from Lilie?” she asked.
‘No. No,” Mr. James replies, before adding, “He can rot in hell.”
The program airs just days after the first anniversary of Ms James’ death.
Despite Lilie’s parents’ brave decision to discuss their daughter’s gruesome murder, St Andrew’s principal Julie McGonigle has advised parents not to let their children watch the interview.
“We are aware that 60 Minutes covered this story on Sunday evening,” she wrote in an email to the school’s parents and guardians on Thursday.
‘We strongly advise that you discourage your children from watching it.’
Lilie James, who studied sports business at the University of Technology, is described as ‘lively, outgoing and much loved by her friends and family’
Dr. McGonigle added that she had already discussed the impact the anniversary of Ms James’ murder was likely to have on members of the school community with students.
“We continue to support the James family in their grief,” she wrote in the email.
‘This one-year anniversary will be a challenging period for our community, especially as it falls during the HSC and IB examination period for many of the most affected students.
‘We are focused on supporting our students, staff and families now and in the future, and are very grateful to the wider community for the depth of care the school has received.
‘We expect there will be media attention in the coming week.
Thijssen, who was also a sports coach at St Andrew’s, was setting up desks in the school gym for the students’ upcoming HSC exams when Mrs James agreed to come and see him.
The couple had had a brief romantic relationship that ended after about five weeks and met for a final exchange of assets.
Paul Thijssen attended St. Andrew’s for two years before graduating in 2017 and later working as a sports coach at the school
Lilie James was a popular water polo coach at St Andrew’s before she was murdered
CCTV footage from the school shows Ms James and her 24-year-old killer entering the gym’s bathroom, with Thijssen leaving alone more than an hour later.
Thijssen was again captured on CCTV, this time 12 kilometers away in the affluent eastern Sydney suburb of Vaucluse, about two hours later at 8.45pm.
He was seen parking his rented white Lexus near Diamond Bay Reserve, sitting on a rocky coastal cliff, before dumping the hammer he used to kill Ms James in a nearby rubbish bin.
Thijssen then returned to his car and sat in it for two hours before calling Triple-0 to report his sickening crime.
Police traced the triple-0 call to the reservation, where they found an abandoned backpack containing some of Thijssen’s belongings, but no sign of the killer.
His body was seen two days later, wedged in the rocks beneath the park, by traders working on a boardwalk along the reserve’s cliff edge.
Daily Mail Australia revealed this week that parents and staff at St Andrew’s had been informed that the school would not be considered “an interested party” in the coronial inquiry into the former couple’s deaths due to begin in March next year..
Thijssen drives his rented white Lexus through Vaucluse, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, at 8.47pm after leaving Ms James’ battered body in the school gym bathroom
Emergency services recover Thijssen’s body after it was seen wedged in rocks under a clifftop park, two days after he killed Mrs James
That’s despite teachers and students who had intimate knowledge and involvement with both young coaches in the lead-up to the murder, and school staff who assisted in the discovery of the gruesome crime scene.
Dr. McGonigle made the announcement in her latest Head of School Newsletter, saying: ‘at this stage the State Coroner is of the opinion that St Andrew’s Cathedral School does not have a sufficient interest in this matter to be considered an interested party, pursuant to the Coroners Act’.
Mr James remembered his daughter as an “independent, vibrant” young woman who had always lived life to the fullest when she was farewelled at a moving memorial service in Sydney last November.
‘In addition to working and studying, Lilie enjoyed coaching and playing water polo. She loved to dance,” he said.
‘Despite her busy schedule, she always made time for her brother Max, her friends and family.
“We cannot thank the community enough for their thoughts, prayers, generosity and messages during this difficult time.
Lilie James is laid to rest after her father, Jamie, spoke of his immense pride in all she achieved before her short life was cruelly cut short
The gym where Thijssen was seen on CCTV following Mrs James into the bathroom before later emerging alone before driving to the Vaucluse and crashing to his death
‘From the bottom of our hearts we thank you for the many wonderful memories we all share of Lilie.
“Lilie James, we are so proud of you and thank you for sharing a wonderful and busy 21 years together.”
The school demolished the gymnasium bathroom where Ms James was murdered in the aftermath of the gruesome murder and installed a memorial to her young life.
Students at the school will mark the one-year anniversary of her death on Friday and will receive black armbands to wear in her memory at sporting events this weekend.