Desperate to kill before she was 25
Taking T ki a life lif was top of f Lilley’s twisted bucket list
THE CRIME A fter student Aaron Pajich-sweetman, 18, vanished in June 2016, the police were led to the home of Jemma Lilley, a British-born supermarket worker with an obsession with serial killers and murder... THE STORY
Raised in the historic and picturesque town of Stamford, Lincolnshire, Jemma Lilley was a clever, creative child.
She had a talent for drawing and playing the piano.
And, despite suffering from dyslexia, she had a high IQ and did well at school.
But her early childhood was apparently scarred.
She reportedly suffered psychological and physical abuse at the hands of her mother, who had mentalhealth problems.
Her father was eventually granted custody of Jemma, and distanced her from her mum to protect her from further trauma.
But the damage may have already been done.
Lilley studied Video-game Design at college. Classmates remembered her as intelligent but socially awkward to the point of unnerving those around her.
And, by then, Lilley had developed an obsession with horror films and serial killers.
To her, infamous childmurdering villain Freddy Krueger was the hero of the
Nightmare on Elm Street
series of films.
Fascinated by torture, murder and mutilation, Lilley researched real-life serial killers – and their grisly methods.
She even wrote and selfpublished a book called Playzone, which she’d originally written as a computer game at the age of 16 – about a fictional serial killer and his devoted followers.
The book was torture porn – violent and graphic to the extreme.
Lilley would read bits aloud while wearing a grotesque, homemade mask.
Yet, while her morbid interests were no secret, nobody seemed to know that Lilley wasn’t merely intrigued by her evil idols…
She wanted to be one of them.
In 2010, Lilley, then 18, moved to Perth, Australia, on a working visa.
At first, she lived with an old family friend.
But, eventually, Lilley moved to a house in Orelia, Perth, which she nicknamed Elm Street, after her favourite film.
Her new home was adorned with horror-movie memorabilia, including a Chucky doll – villain of the Child’s Play movie series – brandishing a knife.
Then, in 2016, Lilley, aged 24, met older, single mum Trudi Lenon through mutual friends.
Lenon, 44, was a submissive in Perth’s BDSM – bondage, discipline, dominance, submission and sadomasochism – scene.
The pair quickly became inseparable – with Lenon moving into Elm Street. I will fear you but respect you...i see you as my
dominant, Lenon wrote to Lilley on Facebook.
My mind is the darkest being you will ever be laying your life in the hands of, Lilley replied.
But, if Lilley had a burning lust for murder before, this toxic relationship now ignited that spark.
The two women shared their murderous fantasies. And they soon began plotting murder. I cannot rest until the blood or the flesh of a screaming,
pleading victim is gushing out and pooling on the floor, one disturbing message from Lilley to Lenon read.
It is definitely time – I am ready, you are ready,
Lenon replied.
And it was Lenon who found their victim.
Aaron Pajich-sweetman was a student on the autistic spectrum, who Lenon knew from college.
A friendly, trusting soul, Aaron readily agreed to go round and help Lenon download computer software in June 2016.
In reality, Aaron had been lured to Elm Street for a more sinister purpose.
While Aaron sat at the computer, Lilley jumped on him from behind, to strangle him with a garrotte wire.
When the wire snapped, Lenon held him down, while Lilley stabbed him twice in the neck and once in the chest.
Aaron bled to death on the floor, before they buried him in the garden, pouring concrete over his shallow grave and covering it with red tiles.
Having finally quenched her blood lust, Lilley was riding on a wave of euphoria.
I’m feeling things I’ve never felt before, she messaged Lenon.
Elated Lilley couldn’t help bragging about the thrill of killing to a colleague at her supermarket job.
However, when he suggested going to police, she claimed she was joking.
But Aaron’s family soon reported him missing.
Through his phone records, the police discovered that the last person he’d spoken to was Trudi Lenon.
Searching the house, the police found a stash of weapons and handwritten lists of torture methods.
Branding, force-feeding, foot roasting, genital mutilation and Chinese water torture.
Horrifyingly, they also found a piece of meat, semidissolved in a tub of hydrochloric acid in what looked like an experiment.
Then the detectives dug up the fully-clothed body of Aaron Pajich-sweetman.
Lilley and Lenon were both charged with murder.
In October 2017, the pair went on trial at the Supreme Court of Western Australia.
They pleaded not guilty. Each blamed the other for the murder, and Lilley denied all
in involvement, claimed she was unaware Aaron was buried in the garden.
Lenon admitted witnessing the murder and helping clean up – but maintained Aaron died at Lilley’s hands.
Yet the evidence was irrefutable.
The court heard that Lilley had told a friend that murder was on her bucket list – and she hoped to cross it off before turning 25.
CCTV from a hardware shop showed both women buying hydrochloric acid to dissolve body parts – a plan they never carried out – and concrete.
Detectives also found a ‘secret’ room, with walls covered in blue tarpaulin, and a shopping trolley with human hair around its wheel. They believed it was used to store Aaron’s body before burial.
Jemma Lilley and Trudi Lenon were both found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison, serving a minimum of 28 years.
Neither showed any emotion or remorse as the judge handed down the sentence.
‘They have taken an innocent boy from his loved ones... They don’t deserve the air they breathe,’ said Aaron’s mother Sharon.
Lilley had satisfied her blood lust – and it’s to be hoped there are no other grisly crimes remaining on her bucket list should she ever be released.