'Bucket list' killer jailed over teenager murder

A British woman who had murder on her "bucket list" has been jailed for life for garroting and stabbing a teenager to death in Australia.

Jemma Lilley, who had an "obsession" with serial killers, murdered 18-year-old Aaron Pajich at her home in Perth, Western Australia, and buried him in a shallow grave in her garden.

The 26-year-old, previously of Stamford, Lincolnshire, was convicted alongside her housemate Trudi Lenon, 43, at the Supreme Court of Western Australia.

The pair were sentenced on Wednesday to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 28 years.

The court heard Lilley had spoken of wanting to kill someone before she turned 25.

Once she had ticked off murder from her "bucket list" she was so "full of herself and euphoric" that she could not help boasting to a work colleague, prosecutor James McTaggart said.

She had also written a book about a serial killer called SOS and went on to assume the identity of the character, jurors were told.

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 was, '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, who had autism, was lured to his death in June 2016, with both defendants blaming each other for the killing.

Lenon told the court Lilley approached the teenager from behind as he installed games on her computer, garroted him until the wire broke then stabbed him three times.

Prosecutors said Lilley left incriminating messages to 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 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, Sharon Pajich said.

"He was my precious little boy, he was my first-born. He was full of life," she added.

"They (the killers) deserve everything they get for what they've done, they've taken an innocent boy from his loved ones."