A deranged Tinder stalker who stabbed his ex-girlfriend 11 times and doused her in petrol left a message scrawled on the victim’s bathroom mirror minutes before the attack.
Paul Dennis Lambert, 36, was shot dead by police after he violently attacked Dr Angela Jay at her home in Port Macquarie, on the New South Wales Mid North Coast, in 2016.
An inquest into Lambert’s death on Friday revealed he wrote the message ‘I love Paul’ on Dr Jay’s mirror in the lead up to a horrific sequence of events.
Paul Dennis Lambert, 36, was shot at the end of a high-speed police pursuit after he stabbed his ex-girlfriend and doused her in petrol at her Port Macquarie home in NSW in 2016
Dr Angela Jay (pictured) managed to break free from his grasp and she fled to her next door neighbour’s house screaming for help
According to court documents seen by The Sydney Morning Herald, Lambert broke into Ms Jay’s home and stashed duct tape, cable ties and knives in her bedroom drawer on November 3, 2016.
The 36-year-old then hid in a cupboard and waited for Dr Jay, who arrived home for dinner about 5pm.
When Dr Jay walked into her bedroom, Lambert sprung from the cupboard and launched his attack, while clamping his hand over her mouth.
Dr Jay tried to break free, but Lambert reached for a knife, which he plunged into her chest, arms and legs, before he doused her in fuel.
The slipperiness of the fluid enabled Dr Jay to eventually break free from his grasp and she fled to her next door neighbour’s house screaming for help.
Following the attack, Lambert fled the scene and drove north before he called Dr Jay’s phone and spoke to paramedics.
When the ambulance officer answered the phone, Lambert asked ‘how is she?’ and said ‘I didn’t mean to do it’.
In a series of follow-up messages and calls to other family members and police, Lambert said he’d stabbed Dr Jay, tried to set her alight, and threatened self-harm.
Police eventually caught up with Lambert after a high speed car chase on the Pacific Highway near Coffs Harbour.
Former workmates of Lambert said the man had struggled with mental illness, and described him as ‘not right in the head’ and said he told them he had been ‘hearing voices’
Police managed to force Lambert off the Pacific Highway near Coffs Harbour after chasing him 150km along the stretch of road (pictured, Angela Jay)
A dramatic six-minute stand-off ensued, which came to a bloody end when Lambert lunged at officers and they shot him dead.
The traumatised policeman who shot dead Lambert later said he wished he could have swapped places with the knifeman.
Acting State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan ruled shooting Lambert was unavoidable given his actions and said it ‘deeply affected’ the officers who pulled the trigger.
‘Senior Constable Damien Buckley said he reflects on the death every day and desperately wishes that there could have been a different outcome and that he could have ”sent Paul home” to his family,’ the judgement read.
‘He even said he wishes he could have ”swapped spots” with Mr Lambert.’
The NSW coronial inquest found police had no choice but to shoot dead the ‘toxic’ Tinder stalker.
‘I do not consider there was any available alternative to lethal force,’ Coroner O’Sullivan said.
‘Senior Constable Damien Buckley (pictured in purple) said he reflects on the death every day and desperately wishes that there could have been a different outcome and that he could have ”sent Paul home” to his family,’ the judgement reads
Acting State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan ruled shooting Lambert was unavoidable given his actions and it ‘deeply affected’ the officers who pulled the trigger, the coroner found
Lambert was on parole at the time of the attack after he assaulted his previous partner in Queensland.
Coroner O’Sullivan said the only other way Lambert could have been stopped from attacking Dr Jay is if communication was better between Queensland and NSW.
She said Lambert had been in breach of his parole conditions when he lived in NSW.
Had Queensland Police issued an arrest warrant, Lambert could have been arrested when he was pulled over for speeding only a few days before the attack happened against Dr Jay.
Though Coroner O’Sullivan said it wasn’t her role to examine the state’s parole system.
Lambert began dating mid north Coast doctor Angela Jay long-distance after matching with her on Tinder in August 2016.
The relationship, which lasted less than two months, deteriorated after Lambert became ‘controlling and possessive’, threatened suicide, lied about deaths and created a false identity, findings by the NSW Coroner released on Friday reveal
Included in his history of brief dates was Emmy award-winning TV reporter Brittany Ann Keil, 32
The relationship, which lasted less than two months, deteriorated after Lambert became ‘controlling and possessive’, threatened suicide, lied about deaths and created a false identity, findings by the NSW Coroner released on Friday reveal.
But Lambert’s ‘insidious’ manipulations were part of a much larger history of abuse against women, Coroner O’Sullivan found.
Included in his history of brief dates was Emmy award-winning TV reporter Brittany Ann Keil, 32.
Though his ‘erratic’ behaviour forced Keil to end the short-lived relationship.
He was the subject of 10 apprehended violence orders from five separate women, including his former wife.
Lambert broke into Dr Jay’s home at Port Macquarie (pictured), ambushing and stabbing her 11 times in the chest, arms and legs days later on November 3
He was deported from the United States in 2015 for extorting a woman he dated while married.
He claimed diagnoses of psychological disorders including multiple personalities – up to nine at once – including ‘evil Paul’.
Former workmates of Lambert said the man had struggled with mental illness, and described him as ‘not right in the head’ and said he told them he had been ‘hearing voices’.
‘When he was sacked he wrote an email to everyone apologising and saying he was trying to get help,’ they said.
‘He was so polished at work, it was only when you saw him regularly that you could see through it.
‘He was always someone who really thought things through from every angle. He was non-stop thinking up plans and schemes, always thinking ten steps ahead. He was pretty intelligent but always a bit weird.
‘He’d just rant about a topic and turn it inside out, like he’d been trapped in a room thinking about it.
A NSW coronial inquest found police had no choice but to shoot dead the ‘toxic’ Tinder stalker
‘He was professional at work and made us lots of money, but in private he struggled to relate to people and make true friends.’
Lambert abused his wife throughout their divorce back in Queensland and was convicted of assault but paroled immediately.
He then moved to Sydney and met Dr Jay.
His escalating violence against Dr Jay reached fever pitch in late-2016 when he rented a room at a hotel near her hospital to stalk her.
‘It went from intense to feeling very uncomfortable and then it turned into feeling a bit more afraid,’ Dr Jay said at an earlier hearing.
In one text message Lambert warned Dr Jay ‘I need you to understand that this is my good side right now. The good side won’t last long.’
In one text message Lambert warned Dr Jay ‘I need you to understand that this is my good side right now. The good side won’t last long’
A neighbour told Daily Mail Australia Dr Jay remained calm as she explained to him and another neighbour what needed to be done to stop her from bleeding out.
‘I heard a scream and initially thought someone had hurt themselves, I checked my family and then went outside,’ the neighbour recounted.
He said even when he saw stab wounds on her arms and legs it ‘took a while to click’.
‘She was over at the [other] neighbours when I got there… even when I saw the bleeding I still didn’t register what had happened.’
Dr Jay’s neighbour recalled seeing stab wounds on her arms and one on her leg with her attacker nowhere to be seen.
‘He was either gone or hiding by the time we were helping her,’ the neighbour told Daily Mail Australia.
Angela Jay still has the emotional and physical scars (pictured) from the harrowing attack
Coroner O’Sullivan said the combination of Dr Jay’s skills and her neighbour’s bravery and assistance saved the woman’s life.
Lambert fled the scene and sent messages to his mother where he spoke about the attack in third-person.
‘He’s fighting his way out and I can only hold on so long,’ he wrote.
Police gave chase and used road spikes to stop his car on the Pacific Highway.
Surrounded, Lambert ignored officers’ requests for him to surrender. When he lunged at an officer with the knife they shot him dead.
In Lambert’s rental car investigators found his passport, traffic fines, personal effects and a note.
‘Your (sic) all now at peace and free to live happy lives without me f***ing it up and being a toxic blight on this world and to you all,’ the note ends.
Coroner O’Sullivan recommended NSW Police continue to explore non-lethal options for knife-wielding offenders including shields.
She also recommended NSW Police consider implementing information sharing systems to stop people with outstanding AVOs purchasing knives without a check.
A neighbour told Daily Mail Australia Dr Jay (pictured) remained calm as she explained to him and another neighbour what needed to be done to stop her from bleeding out
Surrounded, Lambert ignored officers’ requests for him to surrender. When he lunged at an officer with the knife they shot him dead