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.
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