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Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Beau Lamarre-Condon’s double murder trial. The accused has returned to the witness box today for further cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC.
The former NSW police officer has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder over the deaths of Jesse Baird, 26, a former TV presenter, and Luke Davies, 29, a Qantas flight attendant. There is no dispute that the men died of gunshot wounds from his police-issued pistol on February 19, 2024, and that the accused disposed of the bodies on February 22, 2024.
The Crown alleges that Lamarre-Condon planned to kill Baird after developing an obsessive and jealous infatuation with him and that he killed Davies, Baird’s boyfriend, to eliminate a witness to his crime.
The defence case is that Lamarre-Condon acted in self-defence. The 31-year-old has told the court he had his police pistol with him because he had contemplated taking his own life the previous night over work-related trauma.
This is the accused’s recent evidence:
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The accused has denied that he was aware that Jesse Baird was dating Luke Davies before the men’s deaths on February 19, 2024.
He said that after February 19 he “went and blocked numerous accounts from my own Instagram account because of this incident”, including Davies’ account.
“I even blocked Jesse’s family members and stuff like that,” he said. “I didn’t want any of that.”
He said he deactivated his social media accounts on the evening of February 19, after the men’s deaths.
“I suggest that you did know about the relationship between Luke Davies and Jesse Baird,” Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, said.
Lamarre-Condon agreed with Hatfield that he started using his burner phone around January 26.
Lamarre-Condon has denied that he stole NSW Police training bullets after attending a session at Blacktown Pistol Club, but said he stole them from Miranda police station.
“I would have just said it if it was from the training day,” he said.
He has admitted that he fired two of those bullets on February 1, 2024, in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney.
The Crown case is that this formed part of his preparation for murdering Jesse Baird, but Lamarre-Condon told the court he was contemplating taking his own life over work-related trauma.
Lamarre-Condon has returned to the witness box and is being asked about a SIM card he obtained in the name of Bob Ballard. He said it “wouldn’t call it a burner phone”.
Records suggest it was purchased online on January 16, 2024, before the alleged murders a month later.
He said he bought this SIM because he wanted to team up with a number of current and former police officers to make a complaint and he did not want to be targeted by police.
He was also asked about a conversation he had with a police colleague on January 13, 2024, about phones.
He said this was related to study he was undertaking as part of his policing duties. As a NSW Police officer he already knew that “if you’re going to commit an offence, you don’t take any electronic devices”, he said.
Lamarre-Condon was asked by the prosecution for the first time on Thursday about a 1600-word message he sent to Jesse Baird from his friend’s Instagram account after the former TV presenter had broken up with him in November 2023.
By this stage, Baird had asked the accused not to contact him and blocked him on Instagram.
In the message, Lamarre-Condon poses as his friend and claims that he has cancer. He also refers to Baird losing his job after Network Ten ’s Studio 10 was axed.
Lamarre-Condon admitted on Thursday that parts of the message were a lie but told the court that he used natural therapies he sourced online after a naturopathic doctor in Bondi Junction suggested he may have a “sporadic form of cancer”. He told the court said she recommended he get a biopsy, but he did not.
Among the evidence tendered in Lamarre-Condon’s trial is a long text message he sent to Jesse Baird after the former TV presenter ended their relationship in November 2023. The court has that the men were not in an exclusive relationship.
The accused sent a draft of the message to a friend on November 18, 2023. He has told the court that the final version that he sent to Baird, a copy of which is not in evidence, included a line at the end referring to “my clothing and my surfboard” that he wanted to retrieve from Baird’s house.
He rejected a suggestion by Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, on Thursday that the message did not include this request.
The Crown case is that Lamarre-Condon bought a surfboard cover on February 17, 2023, as part of his plan to kill Baird and use the bag for his body.
Lamarre-Condon has denied this allegation and said he needed a new cover for a surfboard he had at Baird’s terrace. He has told the court that he went to the Paddington home on the day of Baird’s death to retrieve his clothing and surfboard, as well as a Cartier ring worth $25,000.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Beau Lamarre-Condon’s double murder trial. The accused has returned to the witness box today for further cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC.
The former NSW police officer has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder over the deaths of Jesse Baird, 26, a former TV presenter, and Luke Davies, 29, a Qantas flight attendant. There is no dispute that the men died of gunshot wounds from his police-issued pistol on February 19, 2024, and that the accused disposed of the bodies on February 22, 2024.
The Crown alleges that Lamarre-Condon planned to kill Baird after developing an obsessive and jealous infatuation with him and that he killed Davies, Baird’s boyfriend, to eliminate a witness to his crime.
