Covert prison recording of Lamarre-Condon and friend played at Sydney double murder trial
A Sydney court has heard a covert recording of accused former police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon talking to a friend during a prison visit. In it he denies having planned the killings.
A covert recording of Beau Lamarre-Condon, 31, speaking with a friend in prison was played on Monday at the New South Wales Supreme Court in Sydney, Australia. He is on trial for two counts of murder and one count of aggravated break and enter, and has pleaded not guilty. The recording matters because the jury is weighing whether the deaths of two men in 2024 were planned.
Prosecutors allege that on 19 February 2024 Lamarre-Condon used his police service weapon to fatally shoot the couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies at Baird's home in Paddington, Sydney.
What the recording contains
The friend, whose identity is suppressed, made the recording on behalf of police when he visited Lamarre-Condon in prison in December last year. At the start, the accused asked the friend to turn around to show he was not wearing a wire. The friend replied that he was paranoid.
The friend said Lamarre-Condon had put him in a very difficult position. Lamarre-Condon apologised and said he fully took accountability for the friend being involved because of him. He also accused the friend of lying in his police statement, and denied saying that Davies was killed to eliminate a witness, claiming instead that he acted in self-defence.
Lamarre-Condon said that entering Baird's home was not a break and enter because Baird had a key cut for him. He conceded that going in was trespass, but described it as normal to return to a former partner's home to collect belongings. He said he did not knock because he did not want an apprehended violence order, though he called out hello as he walked in.
He said that had he planned the killings he would have been calm and prepared, with cleaning ready, and would not have used a police firearm, adding that he could get another gun for $10,000. He told the friend he had taken him to Royal National Park in early 2024 and fired his gun to test how loud it was, because he planned to return there to take his own life. He said he had suffered suicidality from trauma at work.
On Friday, the friend told the court that Lamarre-Condon allegedly confessed to killing the two men and called it an "out-of-body experience", before trying to pass it off as a joke. The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.
