In a Sydney courtroom, the weight of two lives lost settled over grieving families as a jury heard the fragmentary sounds of a final emergency call — a muffled voice, then silence. Beau Lamarre-Condon, a former NSW police officer, stands accused of shooting his former partner Jesse Baird and Baird's partner Luke Davies inside a Paddington home in February 2024, then concealing their bodies in surfboard bags near a rural monastery. The prosecution is weaving together forensic evidence, surveillance footage, and testimony about the defendant's prior inquiries into criminal detection methods — ra
Triple-zero call audio played as ex-cop's murder trial hears damning evidence
Two men, Luke Davies and Jesse Baird, were fatally shot on 19 February 2024 in an alleged murder by a serving police officer.
He thought Paul was stupid for doing it on CCTV
Mark
Why does the conversation between Higginson and Lamarre-Condon the day before the murders matter so much to the prosecution's case?
Mimi
It suggests the defendant was asking detailed questions about how to avoid detection—specifically about CCTV, phones, cash, and whether someone could get away with murder if they didn't leave video evidence. The timing is damning.
Luke
But hold on. Higginson said they weren't close, that they just chatted at work. How do we know Lamarre-Condon was asking these questions with intent, rather than just making conversation? Lots of people ask hypothetical questions.
Mimi
That's fair. But the prosecution is building a pattern. He asks about CCTV, then buys a surfboard bag in cash, then the bodies are found in surfboard bags. The questions look different in that context.
Mark
What about the emergency call? What does that tell us?
Mimi
It's unclear. There's movement, a muffled voice, then it cuts out. Police couldn't pinpoint the location. It might be evidence of a struggle, or it might be something else entirely.
Luke
Exactly. We don't actually know what that call represents. The prosecution is presenting it as evidence of the crime happening, but the audio itself is ambiguous. A muffled voice saying "fuck off" could mean many things.
Mark
And the defence is claiming self-defence. Does the evidence we've heard so far contradict that?
Mimi
Not directly. The CCTV of the surfboard bag purchase and the location of the bodies are consistent with the prosecution's narrative, but they don't rule out self-defence. The defence would argue he panicked after a struggle.
Luke
Right. So far we have circumstantial evidence and a conversation that could be read multiple ways. The trial is still early.
Der Puls
- A courtroom fell silent as Davies' family wept through a recording of his final emergency call — movement, a muffled 'fuck off,' then nothing.
- CCTV footage shows the defendant walking directly to a surfboard bag display at a sporting goods store and paying in cash — days before two bodies were found inside such bags near a monastery fence.
- The day before the alleged murders, Lamarre-Condon was asking a fellow detective pointed questions about how killers get caught — and what they do wrong.
- A colleague testified that Lamarre-Condon called another murderer 'stupid' for killing where cameras could see him, then asked whether the man might have escaped justice had he survived.
- The defence maintains the shootings were acts of self-defence following physical confrontations, and that panic — not premeditation — drove what followed.
- The trial continues as the jury absorbs a portrait of a man who, the prosecution argues, used his insider knowledge of policing to plan what he could not undo.
In a Sydney courtroom, the weight of two lives lost settled over grieving families as a jury heard the fragmentary sounds of a final emergency call — a muffled voice, then silence. Beau Lamarre-Condon, a former NSW police officer, stands accused of shooting his former partner Jesse Baird and Baird's partner Luke Davies inside a Paddington home in February 2024, then concealing their bodies in surfboard bags near a rural monastery. The prosecution is weaving together forensic evidence, surveillance footage, and testimony about the defendant's prior inquiries into criminal detection methods — raising the troubling question of whether a man sworn to uphold the law had studied its evasion.
On a Friday morning in a New South Wales courtroom, the family of Luke Davies broke down as a recording played — a call made from his phone to emergency services at 9:50am on February 19, 2024. The audio was fragmentary: shuffling sounds, a muffled voice saying 'fuck off,' then silence. When police called back, they reached only a voicemail greeting.
Beau Lamarre-Condon, 31, a former Sydney police officer, is on trial for the alleged murder of Davies and Davies' partner Jesse Baird, both shot with Lamarre-Condon's service weapon inside Baird's Paddington home that morning. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one count of aggravated break and enter.
The prosecution presented CCTV footage of Lamarre-Condon purchasing a surfboard bag at a Decathlon store, paying in cash. Days later, the victims' bodies were found inside two such bags near the fence of a monastery in Bungonia. Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC used the footage to establish a deliberate material link between the defendant's actions and the concealment of the bodies.
Perhaps the most unsettling testimony came from a colleague, criminal investigation officer Ben Higginson, who had worked alongside Lamarre-Condon the day before the alleged murders at a protest. Higginson had been investigating the killing of Lilie James, a young water polo coach murdered by her former partner — a case that affected him personally. When he raised it with Lamarre-Condon, the defendant seemed unmoved, calling the perpetrator 'stupid' for committing the crime in view of CCTV, and asking whether the man might have escaped detection had he not taken his own life.
The conversation turned to methods of evasion — cash transactions, phone locations, what detectives look for in suspicious death investigations. Higginson, not yet aware of what the following morning would bring, answered candidly. The defence has argued that the shootings were acts of self-defence following physical struggles, and that Lamarre-Condon panicked in the aftermath. The trial continues.
In a New South Wales courtroom on Friday, the family of Luke Davies wept as a recording played—a call made from his phone to emergency services on the morning he and his partner, Jesse Baird, were allegedly shot dead by a serving police officer. The audio, captured at 9:50am on February 19, 2024, was sparse and fragmentary: the sound of movement, then a muffled voice saying "fuck off," before the line went dead. When police attempted to call back, they reached only Davies' voicemail greeting. Officers were dispatched to search the area but could not determine the exact location from which the call had been placed.
Beau Lamarre-Condon, 31, a former Sydney police officer, stands accused of fatally shooting Davies and Baird with his service weapon inside Baird's Paddington home that same morning. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one count of aggravated break and enter. The trial, unfolding before Justice Natalie Adams, has begun to lay out the prosecution's case through a combination of forensic evidence and testimony about the defendant's prior conduct and knowledge.
CCTV footage presented to the court showed Lamarre-Condon purchasing a second surfboard bag from a Decathlon store in Miranda Westfield. In the video, he walks directly to the surfboard section, selects a cover, and pays in cash. Days later, the bodies of Davies and Baird were discovered inside two surfboard bags positioned near the fence line of a monastery in Bungonia. Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC presented this sequence to establish a material connection between the defendant's actions and the method by which the victims were transported and concealed.
On the day before the alleged murders, February 18, 2024, Lamarre-Condon was working alongside Ben Higginson, a criminal investigation officer with the NSW police force, at a pro-Palestine protest. During a conversation at that event, Higginson mentioned that his work had been difficult—he was investigating the murder of Lilie James, a 21-year-old water polo coach at St Andrews Cathedral School who had been killed by Paul Thijssen in October 2023, days after the pair ended their relationship. Thijssen had followed James into the school gymnasium with a hammer; CCTV captured the attack. He later took his own life at the Vaucluse cliffs. Higginson, who had attended the school himself, told the court the case "hit home a bit more" because of that personal connection, and he became emotional discussing it with Lamarre-Condon.
But Lamarre-Condon's response struck Higginson as notably detached. When asked about the James murder, the defendant seemed "blase," according to Higginson's testimony. Lamarre-Condon remarked that Thijssen was "stupid" for committing the crime where CCTV would capture it. He then asked Higginson a pointed question: would Thijssen have gotten away with it if he had not killed himself? Higginson replied that police investigation extended far beyond video footage alone.
The conversation then shifted to methods of evasion. Higginson brought up the 2007 death of Matthew Leveson, recalling that CCTV had captured Leveson's partner purchasing tarp at a hardware store before burying the body in a national park. The two officers discussed how cash transactions are harder to trace than bank card payments, and they spoke more broadly about "what avenues detectives look at for suspicious deaths." When Lamarre-Condon asked specifically about phones, Higginson explained that leaving a phone at home during a crime would still place it in the vicinity of the perpetrator's residence—a detail that would register as suspicious during an investigation.
Higginson noted that while he and Lamarre-Condon were not close, they would chat at work. He recalled that Lamarre-Condon had mentioned various side ventures, including trips to France to purchase Hermès bags for resale in Australia. The defence, led by John Stratton SC, has argued that Baird and Davies were shot in self-defence following physical struggles with Lamarre-Condon, and that the defendant panicked and cleaned the scene immediately afterward. The trial continues before the jury.
Bemerkenswerte Zitate
He thought Paul was stupid for doing it on CCTV— Ben Higginson, NSW police investigator, describing Lamarre-Condon's comment about another murder case
If you were to leave your phone at home and commit a murder, the phone would be showing up in the vicinity of your residence— Ben Higginson, responding to Lamarre-Condon's question about phones and crime detection
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Das Original lesen bei The Guardian ↗