Gemma Lilley and Trudi Lenon acted today when they killed the 18-yaer-old.

Thrill killer Jemma Lilley who murdered Aaron Pajich-Sweetman loses conviction appeal



Jemma Lilley and her older, bondage-loving housemate Trudi Lenon garrotted and stabbed 18-year-old Aaron Pajich at their Orelia house, then buried him in a shallow grave in their backyard, covering it with concrete and tiles in June 2016.

The women blamed each other at their four-and-a-half week Supreme Court trial, but a jury took less than three hours to find them both guilty.

On Tuesday, the Court of Appeal dismissed Lilley’s appeal.

Outside court, the victim’s mother Sharon Pajich said she was happy Lilley had lost.

“We’re just going to move forward now ... that’s the final chapter,” she told reporters.

Father Keith Sweetman held back tears as he said he and Mr Pajich’s stepmother Veronica Desmond were trying to get on with their lives but were not coping well.

Lilley, who was a supermarket shelf stacker, and Lenon, a mother of three who lured Mr Pajich to their house on the pretence of seeing her son to play computer games, were both jailed for a minimum of 28 years.

At the appeal hearing, Lilley’s defence counsel Simon Watters argued a book called Playzone, which she wrote aged 16 and centred on a fictional male serial killer named SOS, should not have been put before the jury as propensity evidence as it was “not of significant probative value”.

But Justice Michael Buss said one would think the book was highly relevant.

“It demonstrated the appellant’s obsession with serial killers and murder generally,” he said.

Justice Buss noted Lilley used the name SOS in exchanges with Lenon at times close to the killing.

Mr Watters also took issue with the suggestion a person “very interested” in knives such as Lilley was more likely to have formed an intention to stab someone.

But Justice Buss said evidence of her large collection, when combined with the rest of the evidence that was heard at trial, was “overwhelmingly probative”.

Justice Robert Mazza said Lilley was “obsessed” with knives.

“There were an extraordinary number of knives,” he said.

Lilley was moved to a regional prison after it emerged she was openly having a romance with neo-Nazi murderer Melony Attwood in Melaleuca jail.