source : the age
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of Beau Lamarre-Condon’s criminal trial in the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney.
Lamarre-Condon, 31, 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, in Paddington on February 19, 2024. His case is that he acted in self-defence, the 15-person jury has been told.
The former NSW police officer has also pleaded not guilty to an aggravated charge of breaking into Baird’s home six months earlier on August 17, 2023, and stealing his mobile phone and wallet.
Lamarre-Condon started giving evidence on Thursday and returns to the witness box today. He denied breaking into Baird’s home and said he used a key the TV presenter left for him in the letterbox, but admitted he put a bobby pin in the front door lock.
He said he wanted to take Baird’s phone outside while he was sleeping to check if he was in a relationship with another man, and “if he was to wake up and come outside, he would see the bobby pin [and] not be under the impression that it was me going through his phone”.
He has yet to give evidence about the day Baird and Davies died of gunshot wounds from his police-issued Glock pistol.
The Crown alleges Lamarre-Condon developed an obsessive and jealous infatuation with Baird that escalated when Baird ended their casual romantic relationship in November 2023.
The defence case is that the accused went to Baird’s home disguised as an Uber Eats delivery rider to collect some of his belongings and that his gun went off twice during a struggle with Baird, wounding him fatally, and that Davies shot himself during a second struggle.
There is no dispute that he cleaned Baird’s share house and disposed of the men’s bodies.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732) or the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491.
Lamarre-Condon says he wanted to be sure nobody was home when he collected his belongings from Baird’s home on the morning of February 19.
“I didn’t want him to be home. I waited until just before 9am and he hadn’t come out of the house,” he says. He said Baird had told him to refrain from contacting him.
“As a police officer we take any allegations of domestic violence very serious [sic],” he says.
“Police must take action. At the very least I would have had an AVO taken against me.
“I was worried if I knocked on the door it may be perceived from harassment … because Jesse told me, ‘please refrain from contacting me.’”
Lamarre-Condon says that on the evening of February 18, 2024, the night before the alleged murders, he confided in his mother that he was feeling suicidal.
He says he had “many hours of conversations” with his mother that night and told his friend, dubbed Fiona Rosso in the proceedings, that he was “feeling down and low because of work”.
He says he finally agreed with his mother it “was time to go off from work”.
He says he was going to go get his belongings back from Baird on February 19 before returning his gun to Miranda police station. He starts to become tearful as he describes leaving his Balmain home in the early hours of February 19.
“I wanted to go for a surf that day,” he says. He says his surfboard was in the tray of Baird’s ute, and he arrived at his home around 6am.
Lifeline 13 11 14
Lamarre-Condon says he helped his mother to hire a car because her own vehicle was in for smash repairs.
On the way to the hire car pickup location with his mother, he said that he “put my phone on aeroplane mode, which I normally do when I’m having private conversations.”
He says that he told his mother he “mentally wasn’t feeling okay” because of work.
“I never had any intentions to hide my location. I was actively using my phone [at the Hertz hire car location].”
The Crown has alleged Lamarre-Condon pretended to return his gun to a safe at Balmain police station, near his home, after his work shift on February 18, 2024, the day before the alleged murders.
“I went to the gun safe. I did not try to give the impression I was putting my firearm back. I took my gun. I’m not denying that,” he said.
He said he was only trying to get a padlock.
Former NSW police officer Ben Higginson gave evidence earlier in the trial that he had a conversation with Lamarre-Condon on February 18, the day before the alleged murders, about the 2023 murder of Sydneysider Lilie James. James was killed by her ex-boyfriend Paul Thijssen.
Higginson said Lamarre-Condon seemed “pretty blase” in the conversation and had said Thijssen was “stupid for doing this on CCTV”.
Asked about the alleged conversation, Lamarre-Condon said: “I wasn’t aware of the Lilie James murder. I don’t really watch the news prior to this date.”
He said he asked only “general questions” and “we didn’t discuss any other murders”.
Lamarre-Condon is being asked about a surfboard cover he bought on February 17, 2024, two days before the alleged murders.
He said he has been “surfing on and off since I was 13” and his old cover “had rips and tears in it”.
He made a “dark humour” joke to the friend who accompanied him to the store about what would happen if he put his friend in the bag and “dragged you out of the store”, and how quickly the police might come, he said.
He said he told his friend that to police the bags were reminiscent of body bags.
Lamarre-Condon has told the court that he signed his firearm out of Miranda police station on February 16, 2024, three days before the alleged murders, ahead of a “user-pays” work shift on February 18 for the “pro-Palestine march in the Domain”.
He said that after picking up his gun he went to get his car washed in Zetland.
“The Crown did not play this footage,” he said. “I got my car washed. My gun was in my backpack. I just found it interesting that that footage was not played to the jury.”
He said this showed that he had his gun with him while he was off-duty, and if he had gone to Baird’s home on this day to collect his belongings he would have been in the same position because he had his gun with him.
Warning: Graphic content
Beau Lamarre-Condon is being asked about evidence a friend has given that he fired his police gun twice at Royal National Park in Sydney’s south before the alleged murders in February 2024.
He said he was suicidal at this time because of work-related trauma and was planning on returning to this location to take his own life.
“I started taking my stepdad’s medication,” he said. “I was hoping that this medication would make me feel better.”
The friend has testified that Lamarre-Condon shot his service pistol twice into bushland and asked him how loud the gunshots were.
Beau Lamarre-Condon has returned to the witness box. He is asked about what he meant when he said he had a romantic relationship with Jesse Baird.
“We were not exclusive,” he said. “I was still seeing people at various times throughout my relationship with Jesse.”
He said that what he meant when he said they had a “romantic, intimate relationship” was that they did things that couples did, including having dinners and seeing each other regularly.
During his evidence on Thursday, Lamarre-Condon denied claims by a former friend, dubbed Elizabeth Kennedy in the proceedings, that he took a photo of Baird in bed with another man from outside his window.
The accused said he went to Baird’s home after their first breakup in April 2023 and he tapped on the bedroom window to get Baird’s attention, and he saw Baird having sex with another man.
He said he did not take a photo and left immediately.
“I kind of froze in a bit of a shock, and I maybe stood there for like five seconds. I did not stay and watch like a little creep.”
