Some accounts of a life come apart under the simple question of a name. On the sixth day of his testimony, Beau Lamarre-Condon could not say who had told him he was ill, nor where that person practised, and in the NSW Supreme Court this absence became part of a larger reckoning. The former police officer is charged with the killings of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in Baird's Paddington home in February 2024, and he has pleaded not guilty. What he now admits, under cross-examination, is a long pattern of deception toward the man he had once loved, and the jury must decide what those admissions m
Lamarre-Condon tells court he was told he had cancer by a naturopath he cannot name or locate
Jesse Baird and Luke Davies were allegedly fatally shot in Baird's Paddington home in Sydney on 19 February 2024.
"It's not a lie, Mr Crown"
Mark
Why did the cancer story matter enough for the prosecutor to spend time on it?
Mimi
Because it was a message sent to Baird after the relationship ended, and Lamarre-Condon now says part of it was untrue. It fits the pattern Hatfield is building, of deception inside the relationship.
Mark
He admitted a lot on Thursday, didn't he?
Mimi
He agreed he lied to Baird on a number of occasions, that the flowers messages were a lie, and that he threw the phone off Tom Uglys Bridge.
Luke
But the naturopath is only his account. He can't name her or locate the practice, and the court heard nothing independent confirming the visit.
Mark
And the explanation for that?
Mimi
He said there had been development at Bondi Junction and commercial properties were cleared out. He also said he'd only seen her once.
Luke
Which is an explanation, not a verification. Nothing reported shows it has been checked.
Mark
What about the phone?
Mimi
Asked if he threw it to destroy evidence that might incriminate him, he said "Essentially, yes."
Luke
Worth noting that's his answer to the prosecutor's framing. The reporting doesn't say what was on the phone.
Mark
Does any of this decide the murder charges?
Luke
No. He has pleaded not guilty, and the jury still has to weigh all of it.
Der Puls
- A witness who cannot name the naturopath who allegedly gave him a cancer diagnosis, and who calls his own message to Baird 'not a lie'.
- Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield pressing a sequence of deceptions, from a staged flowers post to deleting messages from Baird's phone.
- Lamarre-Condon conceding he lied 'on a number of occasions' and agreeing he had wronged Baird 'in certain aspects'.
- A phone thrown off Tom Uglys Bridge, with his admission that this was 'essentially' done to avoid being linked to evidence.
- The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues, with the jury weighing these admissions against two counts of murder.
Some accounts of a life come apart under the simple question of a name. On the sixth day of his testimony, Beau Lamarre-Condon could not say who had told him he was ill, nor where that person practised, and in the NSW Supreme Court this absence became part of a larger reckoning. The former police officer is charged with the killings of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in Baird's Paddington home in February 2024, and he has pleaded not guilty. What he now admits, under cross-examination, is a long pattern of deception toward the man he had once loved, and the jury must decide what those admissions mean for the far graver charges.
On his sixth day in the witness box, Beau Lamarre-Condon was asked to name the naturopath who, he says, told him he had cancer. He could not. He said he had seen her only once, at Bondi Junction in late 2022, and did not know her name or where she worked. Pressed, he suggested commercial properties in the area had been cleared out. "It's not a lie, Mr Crown," he told the court.
Lamarre-Condon is accused of fatally shooting Jesse Baird and Baird's new partner, Luke Davies, with his police service weapon inside Baird's Paddington home on 19 February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one of aggravated break and enter.
The court saw an Instagram message he had asked a friend to send Baird after they stopped seeing each other in November 2022. It claimed a cancerous tumour near his left shoulder might require amputation, and that it was "growing larger." He told the court the growing part was untrue. He said he had gone to the naturopath seeking medication for PTSD, mentioned a lump he thought was a cyst, and never followed up with conventional medicine. He instead took treatments he sourced online.
Under Hatfield's questioning, he admitted deceiving Baird "on a number of occasions." He had posted a bouquet photo to a florist's page to make it look as though Baird had sent it, and had used Baird's phone to block another man and delete messages. "I was wrong and I shouldn't have done that," he said. Asked whether he had wronged Baird, he agreed only "in certain aspects."
Finally, he said he threw Baird's phone off Tom Uglys Bridge because he did not want evidence of it on him. When Hatfield suggested he meant to destroy evidence that could incriminate him, he replied, "Essentially, yes." The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.
On his sixth day in the witness box at the NSW Supreme Court, Beau Lamarre-Condon was asked to name the person who, he says, told him he had cancer. He could not. The former police officer said he had seen the naturopath only once, at Bondi Junction in October or November 2022, and did not know her name or where she practised. Pressed on the point, he said there had been development in the area and that commercial properties had been "cleared out." "It's not a lie, Mr Crown," he told the court.
Lamarre-Condon is accused of fatally shooting Jesse Baird and Baird's new partner, Luke Davies, with his police service weapon inside Baird's Paddington home in Sydney on 19 February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.
The questioning on Thursday centred on an Instagram message that Lamarre-Condon asked a friend to send to Baird after the two stopped seeing each other in November 2022. The court saw the message. It told Baird that Lamarre-Condon had been informed of a cancerous tumour growing in the area of his left shoulder joint or ligament, and that his arm might have to be amputated.
Under cross-examination from crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC, Lamarre-Condon said he had gone to a naturopathic doctor seeking medication containing magic mushrooms for PTSD, and mentioned a lump near his shoulder that he thought might be a cyst. She told him, he said, that she believed it was a form of sporadic cancer, though he could not recall which. When he asked about the worst case if it went untreated, she allegedly said an arm could be amputated. He said she suggested a biopsy through someone she knew at Westmead hospital. Hatfield asked whether the whole point of naturopaths was to avoid orthodox medicine. Lamarre-Condon said he never followed up, and instead took alternative treatments he sourced online, including taxanes, vincristine tablets and cannabis oil injections. He said he held his own beliefs about natural medicine and about issues such as the Covid-19 vaccine, adding that he had seen people die of blood clots and adverse reactions.
The message to Baird also said the cancer was "growing larger." Lamarre-Condon told the court that part was not true.
Hatfield then walked him through other episodes from the relationship, which the jury has heard ran through 2022 and 2023. Asked whether he had lied to and deceived Baird numerous times, Lamarre-Condon replied: "On a number of occasions." He said he posted a photo of a bouquet to a florist's Instagram page in November, to give the impression Baird had sent it. Baird was in Melbourne at the time, and the caption read: "When he's in Melbourne but still sends you these." Lamarre-Condon said the two were not exclusive and had both seen other men. He had shared the post to his close friends story with settings adjusted so that only the man Baird was seeing could view it. He wanted to see whether that man would message him about whether he was in a relationship with Baird.
A few days later, he admitted, he used Baird's phone to block that man and delete their messages. "I was wrong and I shouldn't have done that, but I did do it," he said. When Baird asked about the flowers story, Lamarre-Condon replied that he was confused why Baird was asking, then said the flowers came from his stepfather to his mother, who had hurt her ankle. He ordered a matching bouquet and sent Baird a photo of his mother with it. Hatfield suggested this was gaslighting, painting himself as the victim while lying. Lamarre-Condon said he was simply denying it, and agreed of the messages: "Yes, all these messages are a lie."
Hatfield put to him that Baird "didn't like you anywhere near as much as you liked him," and that unrequited love had become obsession. Lamarre-Condon rejected that. He agreed, "in certain aspects," that he had wronged Baird in a number of ways.
Finally, he was asked about Baird's phone after the alleged killings. He said he threw it off Tom Uglys Bridge, near the Sutherland Shire in Sydney's south, because he did not want evidence of it on him. Hatfield suggested he did it to destroy evidence that might incriminate him. "Essentially, yes," he answered.
The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
I was wrong and I shouldn't have done that, but I did do it.— Beau Lamarre-Condon, on using Baird's phone to delete messages
It's not a lie, Mr Crown.— Beau Lamarre-Condon, on the naturopath he cannot name
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Das Original lesen bei The Guardian ↗