Beau Lamarre-Condon trial live updates: Former NSW Police officer, alleged double murderer’s cross-examination continues; grilled by Crown over texts to Jesse Baird

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 one person, namely, a man that 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.

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.