Beau Lamarre-Condon denied manufacturing a fake Grindr profile for Jesse Baird on his fifth day in the witness box at the NSW Supreme Court.
Lamarre-Condon Denies Fake Dating Profile Claims
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC questioned the 31-year-old former police officer on Wednesday regarding text messages and dating app profiles created before the killings, according to ABC News. Lamarre-Condon is on trial after pleading not guilty to murdering Baird and Luke Davies at Baird’s Paddington terrace home on February 19, 2024.
Lamarre-Condon rejected accusations that he created a fraudulent account in Baird’s name. He told the court he only attempted to check if an email address was active on the dating app to see if a man Baird had been seeing was in an exclusive relationship, as reported by The Guardian, according to Theguardian.
I can’t confirm if this is 100% [his] email or not, this is something I had seen on social media,
Lamarre-Condon told the court.
Under ongoing questioning by Hatfield, the former officer stated he had been an entertainment reporter when he was a teenager. Lamarre-Condon recalled messaging a friend on December 19, 2022, after a meeting with Baird where he shared a screenshot of messages and wrote that he had experienced a great second date.
He told the court that they never really talked much about Baird’s work, remarking that Baird could have been a garbage cleaner. He also recounted a birthday in September 2023 when he met Baird for a Mexican dinner and later texted a friend that Baird had rejected his kiss, though he maintained they did hook up that night.
The Crown has focused extensively on text messages and social media direct messages sent by Lamarre-Condon in the months leading up to the alleged murders, suggesting a pattern of obsessive behavior following their breakup in April 2023 after Baird could not commit to an exclusive relationship.
Beau Lamarre-Condon denies breaking into Jesse Baird's house to steal his phone – as he begins his fifth day on the witness stand https://t.co/EFPnEW64je
Lamarre-Condon denied stalking Baird or misusing his authority as a police officer to view CCTV footage of Baird on a date with another man at the Royal Hotel in Paddington on May 19, 2023. He explained that he had encountered the footage while assisting police colleagues with official duties following a nearby assault.
Court Examines Prior Break-In and Relationship Scrutiny
Lamarre-Condon denied that he entered the property unlawfully or that he manufactured a chance encounter with Baird days later during an alleged August 17, 2023, break-in at Baird’s home, maintaining that Baird had previously invited him over and left a key out, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
Jurors examined text messages from the day of the alleged home invasion showing that Baird did not respond to an invitation for a catch-up, leading Lamarre-Condon to text back that he would take it as a no.
Prosecutors pointed out that Lamarre-Condon turned his phone to airplane mode for about an hour while the alleged break-in occurred. Lamarre-Condon maintained that other discussions by phone or social media included invitations to the home and asserted that he used a key Baird knew about.
Lamarre-Condon drew a distinction between being infatuated and being obsessed when Hatfield asked about his feelings for Baird during the earlier months of their relationship. Smitten, yes. Obsessed, no,
he said, according to The Age.
He admitted to going through Baird’s phone during a farmstay vacation in March 2023, acknowledging it was a breach of trust and privacy while asserting that Baird exaggerated the number of people he unfollowed. He also denied that an edited video of the trip posted to Instagram was designed to give a false impression of their relationship status.
Lamarre-Condon described wearing a high-visibility jacket, motorcycle helmet, and gloves to enter Baird’s home after lingering outside for more than 20 minutes regarding the fatal events of February 19, 2024. He testified that a struggle ensued when Baird lunged at him with a knife, thinking he was an intruder.
He stated that “police mode” kicked in and he fired his police-issue pistol at Baird’s shoulder to incapacitate him, after which the pair fell to the kitchen floor and the gun accidentally discharged, hitting Baird in the head.
Lamarre-Condon rejected the accusation when Hatfield suggested he executed Baird with a second shot to ensure he was dead, physically motioning to show the jury how the struggle played out and putting down rosary beads he was carrying. He testified that he did not know Baird had been shot through the head despite seeing blood, placed Baird in a recovery position, called triple-zero, and headed outside to flag down an ambulance.
According to his testimony, he encountered Luke Davies holding the pistol on his way out, told Davies he was not there to hurt him, and later led police to where the bodies were stuffed in surfboard bags and buried behind a rural monastery after he handed himself in.
The defence argues that both deaths resulted from self-defence, claiming Lamarre-Condon accidentally shot Baird during a kitchen struggle and that Davies shot himself during a separate altercation, as noted by 7NEWS. The trial continues before Justice Natalie Adams.