Source : Perth Now news
Beau Lamarre-Condon leans forward in the dock, often taking notes, reading documents, or waving his lawyers over for a chat.
Just metres away, the devastated families and friends of TV presenter Jesse Baird and Qantas flight attendant Luke Davies sit, at times staring the former police officer down, wiping away tears or wrapping arms around one another.
Other times, they simply put their heads in their hands as details of their loved ones’ final moments are laid bare in court.
Mr Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to murdering the couple and breaking into Mr Baird’s home the year prior.
Mr Lamarre-Condon briefly dated Mr Baird, with prosecutors alleging in a jury trial before the NSW Supreme Court that he developed an “obsessive and jealous infatuation” with the journalist that “escalated” after he broke things off.
On February 19, 2024, the former officer allegedly turned off his phone, switched to a burner, traded his Tesla for a hire car, and drove to Mr Baird’s Paddington home in Sydney’s east
Footage of Beau Lamarre-Condon’s mother hiring a car her son is accused of using before allegedly murdering a Sydney couple has been released.
It’s alleged he waited there for more than three hours, watching as the journalist’s flatmates left for work.
He is accused of disguising himself as an Uber Eats rider and arming himself with his NSW Police Glock pistol before entering Mr Baird’s home using a key he either stole or secretly copied and shooting Mr Baird twice.
Newly-released footage shown to a murder trial jury shows the moment an ex-cop approached his alleged victim’s home disguised as an Uber Eats driver.
The second shot was described as “execution-style” by prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC. The bullet was later recovered from underneath the floor, the jury was told.
Mr Davies tried to call for help, with Mr Hatfield telling the jury he says “get out” and “f**k off” in a triple-o call before Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly shot him through a bedroom door.
A loved one cried as the sound of the gunshots, captured on CCTV from a neighbouring home, was played in court.
Prosecutors allege Mr Lamarre-Condon immediately began cleaning the crime scene and returned to the home multiple times that day, purchasing gloves, bleach and other cleaning items.
He asked a friend “not to judge him” while telling him he “killed two people”, making a hand gesture and saying “pew pew” when the friend asked how Mr Lamarre-Condon “did it” on the day of the alleged murders, the jury was told.
He later told the man he was just joking and he should “get an Oscar”.
It is alleged Mr Lamarre-Condon hid the couple’s bodies in surfboard bags and left them outside at the Paddington home for nearly a day before coming back for them late at night and washing blood from the yard.
The former officer remained expressionless as CCTV was played to the jury of him appearing to size up one of the surfboard bags three days before the alleged murders while at Decathlon in Westfield Miranda with a friend.
Mr Hatfield previously told the jury Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly asked his friend whether he thought he could fit in the bag, and when the man indicated he probably would not, the former officer replied “I’ll get this one instead” in reference to a different bag.
Mr Baird’s unsuspecting flatmates each took pictures of the bags the bodies were believed to have been hidden in, with the jury shown a photograph displaying a pool of liquid seeping out that one of them thought was rust.
Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly used Mr Baird’s phone to send messages, making it seem like he was alive and travelling to Perth. The presenter’s father shook his head as Mr Hatfield alleged the former officer told one of his own friends he would post her a phone that he needed her to turn on in Perth and then throw it in the ocean.
He allegedly tried to sink the couple’s bodies in a dam at a farm near Goulburn in the NSW Southern Tablelands three days after their deaths, but when this failed he allegedly dumped them along the fence line outside a Greek monastery in Bungonia and covered the bags with rocks and sticks.
The couple’s bodies were found eight days after their alleged murders.
Prosecutors allege Mr Lamarre-Condon knew he was a police suspect in the couple’s disappearance when he handed himself in on February 23.
On his way to the police station, Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly called a police helpline to report a workplace injury but made no mention of the couple.
“All this death and trauma and psychological abuse and trauma – did I say trauma already? – has caused me um not to sleep, get anxious … have some symptoms of schizophrenia,“ Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly said.
Following his arrest he allegedly claimed he was being medicated for schizophrenia, but prosecutors say he had never been prescribed such medication.
Mr Lamarre-Condon claims he acted in self-defence, with his barrister John Stratton SC telling the jury while his client was “very upset” by the break-up and did “stupid things” like deleting Mr Baird’s messages from other men, he did not plan to kill the couple.
The former officer argues he disguised himself to collect some of his belongings from Mr Baird’s home and went inside with a key the journalist had given him.
He had his gun because it was against protocol to leave it unattended, Mr Stratton claimed, and the firearm allegedly went off twice and fatally wounded Mr Baird during a struggle.
While Mr Lamarre-Condon called triple-0, Mr Davies got hold of the gun and shot himself in a second struggle, Mr Stratton alleged.
Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly “panicked” after because “he was a police officer and he knew that this looked bad”.
He is accused of trying to pin the decision to conceal the couple’s deaths on a friend, claiming in a statement – which prosecutors allege is a lie – that the friend urged him to hide the bodies and said “This is like Taylor Swift’s song No Body No Crime”.
Mr Baird dated Mr Lamarre-Condon from late 2022 to April 2023, with the jury told the journalist saw it as “casual” and didn’t want anything serious, as he’d recently been in a long-term relationship. But it’s alleged the former officer wanted more.
Prosecutors allege Mr Lamarre-Condon misused his position in the police force to spy on Mr Baird when he went on a date with another man at the Royal Hotel in Paddington weeks after they broke up.
CCTV footage of Mr Baird on the date was allegedly found on the former officer’s personal devices when they were seized.
Beau Lamarre-Condon allegedly used his role as a police officer to get CCTV footage of TV presenter Jesse Baird on a date with another man nearly a year before his alleged murder, a jury has been told. Mr Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Baird and his new partner Luke Davies and is fighting the allegations in a NSW Supreme Court trial.
In August, 2023, Mr Baird woke to find an intruder, whom he didn’t realise was Mr Lamarre-Condon, standing next to his bed before the man allegedly ran off with his phone and wallet.
Mr Lamarre-Condon is accused of breaking into Mr Baird’s home using a key he had “stolen” before allegedly putting a bobby pin in the lock to make it look as though it had been picked.
Mr Lamarre-Condon concedes he went in the house that night but claims Mr Baird gave him a key.
Their relationship resumed the following month but Mr Baird ended things in November after realising Mr Lamarre-Condon had been going through his phone.
In the immediate aftermath, Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly tried to blame his behaviour on a fake cancer diagnosis, called Mr Baird a “manipulative player”, said “you don’t need to worry about seeing me out etc because you won’t exist” in a text, and asked an old friend if her ex-boyfriend could get a gun.
Prosecutors allege he stalked Mr Baird, broke into his home multiple times, secretly blocked contacts on the presenter’s phone he felt were his “romantic rivals”, had his car tyres cut, and watched the presenter have sex with other men through his window.
Come early 2024, Mr Baird was “smitten” and “almost falling in love” with Mr Davies, with the couple making things official in February.
By this time, Mr Lamarre-Condon was allegedly planning Mr Baird’s murder.
Mr Hatfield alleged he stole police bullets to test firing his gun with a paper bag over the barrel to muffle sound and asked a colleague if reports of gunshots would be ignored if another officer said it was fireworks.
Many witnesses said Mr Baird feared Mr Lamarre-Condon, with his former partner and close friend Corey-Dean Thorpe telling the jury Mr Baird was “petrified” and one time kept repeating “he has a gun”.
The trial continues.
