Brand new AFL shorts, a Qantas card and other bloodied belongings were found in a dumpster two days after football umpire Jesse Baird and flight attendant Luke Davies were allegedly murdered, a Sydney court has heard.
Beau Lamarre-Condon, 31, has been accused of fatally shooting the couple with his police service weapon in Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February 2024.
He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.
The prosecution has alleged Lamarre-Condon began cleaning up the crime scene immediately after the shootings, before dumping items in a skip bin at the Cronulla Bowls Club.
A statement from Craig Scott, a greenskeeper at the club, was read out in the NSW supreme court on Tuesday. It detailed how Scott and a co-worker discovered the belongings after arriving at work on 21 February 2024 and noticing the lid of the skip bin was propped open with rubbish.
“I saw several black plastic bin bags – I definitely remember those bags were not there the day before,” Scott said in the statement read to the jury.
“I opened one of the bags and removed piece of brown clothing … it had red stains on it – it looked like dried blood to me. [We] both thought something suspicious had gone on.”
As they searched the bin, Scott and his co-worker found a silver watch, a leather pouch and a Qantas ID card, the court was told.
Wooden drawers, various shoes and clothing and AFL shorts – still in their plastic packaging – were also discovered.
During his opening statement, crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC alleged Lamarre-Condon had dinner with a friend in Cronulla the previous day, on 20 February 2024.
The police officer had said something about needing to find a skip bin, and his friend pointed one out as Lamarre-Condon drove them home, the court heard.
Defence lawyer John Stratton SC said during his opening statement that Baird and Davies were fatally shot in “self-defence” following struggles with the policeman.
Lamarre-Condon immediately began cleaning up the scene because he “panicked”, the jury was told.
The trial before justice Natalie Adams continues.
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