Astonishing twist in probe into murder of water polo coach Lilie James, one year after she was bludgeoned to death at St Andrews Cathedral School by ex-student
The school where Lilie James was brutally murdered by fellow sports coach will have no official role in the coroner’s investigation into the deaths of her and her killer Paul Thijssen.
Water polo coach Ms James, 21, was found dead in a gymnasium bathroom at St Andrews Cathedral School in the Sydney CBD on October 25 last year after her father James received a text from her phone asking her to be excused from school late at night fetched .
Police were alerted and a school employee allowed officers into the building on Stadhuisplein, where Lilie’s ‘unrecognizable’ body was found, left with serious head injuries.
Insiders have revealed to Daily Mail Australia that St Andrews Cathedral School principal Dr Julie McGonigle has been told the school will not be considered an ‘interested party’ in the coronial inquest into the deaths.
Lilie James was murdered a year ago in a bathroom at St Andrews Cathedral School, where she worked as a coach with the man who bludgeoned her to death, Paul Thijssen
The school (gymnasium in the photo, where Ms James’ body was found in the adjacent bathroom) has been told it cannot participate in the investigation into the deaths of her and her killer Paul Thijssen.
This is despite teachers and students having intimate knowledge and involvement before the murder with Ms. James and school hockey coach Thijssen, and the school staff who assisted in the discovery of the gruesome crime scene.
School principal Dr McGonigle revealed in her latest Head of School Newsletter that ‘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, under the Coroners Act ‘.
The inquest into the deaths of Lilie Anne James and Paul Thomas Stephan Thijssen will be held at the Coroners Court, Lidcombe, in Sydney’s west, over three days from March 18.
After the discovery of Ms. James’ body last October, homicide detectives immediately began looking for 24-year-old Thijssen, who had had a brief, failed relationship with Ms. James.
The couple had arranged for a final exchange of belongings the night she died.
A year ago, the school sent an email to parents at 4.30am on October 26 last year saying the school would be closed for the week following the discovery of Mrs James’ body.
At the time the email was sent, police had still not located their ‘person of interest’, Thijssen.
Students from the school where Lilie James (above) worked as a sports coach, along with the man who killed her Paul Thijssen, will be presented with black armbands at sports matches this week, to mark the one-year anniversary of the tragedy.
An inquest into the deaths of Paul Thijssen (above) and the young woman he killed will hear nothing from the school where they both worked before her murder and his suicide
Almost two days after Lilie’s murder, Paul Thijssen’s body was recovered from the rocks at Diamond Bay, Vaucluse and brought to street level.
During the morning, SACS brought in supervisors for parents and students and moved the HSC students who had to take exams in the gymnasium to another building.
When Lilie James’ identity was confirmed, police searched the coastline at Diamond Bay, Vaucluse for Thijssen and conducted line searches on the cliff above.
Around 5 p.m. that afternoon they found Thijssen’s backpack containing a hammer in a garbage can in the street on the cliff above the bay.
On the morning of Friday, October 27, a tradesman working on a clifftop walkway spotted a body stuck in the rocks and battered by the surf below.
Police divers managed to recover the bloated body, and after a difficult operation hampered by harsh weather conditions, it was retrieved around noon, taken in an American mortuary van and identified as Thijssen.
It later emerged that Thijssen and Mrs James had only been dating for five weeks when she broke off the relationship.
The school confirmed it was aware of the relationship after both athletic department employees informed them.
SACS said relationships between staff members were allowed, provided they followed protocol and notified the school.
A permanent memorial of a framed wreath, made from the ribbons tied around the flowers left outside in tribute to Lilie James, now hangs in the school and will be placed in the foyer occasionally
Lilie James, 21, (right), a water polo coach from St Andrews Cathedral School (left) will be remembered in prayers at the school this week, a year after her brutal murder by school hockey coach Paul Thijssen
In the aftermath of the tragedy, as Mrs James’ family remembered their daughter, the school made plans to create a permanent reminder of her short life in the form of a memorial or award in honor of her memory.
“We are devastated and heartbroken by the loss of our beautiful Lilie James,” the James family said last year, “she was vivacious, outgoing and much loved by her friends and family.”
It can now be revealed that the school demolished the gymnasium bathroom where the crime took place last November.
The new memorial created is a framed wreath made from the ribbons tied to the mounds of flowers left outside the school after Lilie’s death.
The wreath will be on permanent display on the sixth level of SACS, and from time to time “quietly displayed, sometimes important to Lilie” in the school foyer, “given the complexity of trauma and the ongoing grieving process.”
On the one-year anniversary of her tragic death on Friday, students will be given black armbands to wear in memory of Ms James at sporting events this weekend.
Prayers will be said for Lilie on Friday, but due to the HSC Year 12 exams, the school hopes to minimize disruption to students’ timetables ‘at such a critical time’.
“The athletic department will also understand any students who do not wish to play that day,” Dr. McGonigle informed parents this week.
‘The sports department also understands the students who do not want to play that day.’