British woman jailed for 28 years for ‘bucket list’ murder in Australia

Jemma Lilley boasted she had ‘ticked off’ crime by garotting and stabbing autistic teenager

A British woman who had an “obsession” with serial killers has been jailed for life for garotting, stabbing and burying the body of an autistic teenager in Western Australia.

Jemma Lilley, 26, murdered Aaron Pajich, 18, at her home in Perth, burying him in a shallow grave in her garden and covering it with concrete and tiles.

Lilley, previously of Stamford, Lincolnshire, was convicted in November alongside her housemate Trudi Lenon, 43, at the supreme court of Western Australia after a four-week trial.

On Wednesday, the pair were sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 28 years.

James Mactaggart, prosecuting, had told the court Lilley said she wanted to kill someone before she turned 25 and was so “full of herself and euphoric” having ticked off murder from her “bucket list” that she could not help boasting to a work colleague.

She had previously written a book about a serial killer called SOS and went on to assume the identity of the character, the jury heard.

Speaking to the Times after the conviction, Lilley’s stepmother, Nina Lilley, 48, said: “The book was a big problem with me. At the beginning I thought, ‘Fair enough. You want to write a horror story.’ But I didn’t like the contents of it.

“She had always had an obsession with serial killers, but she said it was a way of venting her frustration of what happened when she was a child.”

Pajich was lured to his death on 13 June 2016, with each defendant blaming the other for the killing.

Lenon told the court that Lilley approached the teenager from behind as he installed games on her computer, garotted him with a wire until it broke and then stabbed him three times.

The prosecution said Lilley left incriminating messages for her “obsequious and sycophantic” follower Lenon hours after the killing, saying she was feeling things she had “not felt before”.

After the verdict, the victim’s mother, Sharon Pajich, told reporters she was heartbroken and would have to deal with what happened to her son for a lifetime.

His murderers were “disgusting animals” and should never be released, she said.

“He was my precious little boy, he was my firstborn … he was full of life. They deserve everything they get for what they’ve done. They’ve taken an innocent boy from his loved ones,” his mother said.