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:
- He denied that he was referring to harming or killing Baird when he texted the former TV presenter on November 18, 2023: “You don’t need to worry about seeing me out etc because you won’t exist and no further conversation needs to take place.” Baird had broken up with him on November 16. The accused told the court that he was referring to acknowledging him only.
- Lamarre-Condon said that it was partly true when he claimed he had cancer in a message he sent to Baird from his friend’s Instagram account later in November. A naturopathic doctor in Bondi Junction had told him at the end of October or early November 2023 that a lump on his shoulder appeared to be “a form of sporadic cancer”, he said.
- He said the doctor recommended he get a biopsy. “I did not follow through with the biopsy,” he said. He said he did alternative therapies that he had sourced online.
- He admitted to throwing Baird’s phone off a bridge to destroy potentially incriminating evidence after he died.
- The accused also admitted to “gaslighting” Baird when he denied that he had posted an Instagram story on November 9, 2023, that falsely implied Baird had sent him flowers. He said he later admitted the truth. Lamarre-Condon told the court that he limited the audience for the story to one person, namely, a man Baird had been seeing at this time.
- He rejected a suggestion by the prosecutor that his “unrequited love [for Baird] turned into an obsession”.
Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491, and Lifeline on 13 11 14.
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