Beau Lamarre-Condon tells double murder trial he went through Jesse Baird’s phone and poured water into his fuel tank

Beau Lamarre-Condon has admitted to going through Jesse Baird’s phone, pouring water into his fuel tank and watching him having sex through a window, as he gave evidence in his double-murder trial.

The former police officer is accused of fatally shooting couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies with his police service weapon in 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.

Lamarre-Condon on Thursday started giving evidence at the New South Wales supreme court in front of a 15-person jury as the defence began its case.

His lawyer John Stratton SC asked the former officer about an incident on 17 August 2023, over which Lamarre-Condon is charged with break and enter.

Lamarre-Condon claimed he and Baird had a conversation about staying the night at the Paddington home and told the court Baird had agreed to leaving his key in the letterbox.

Lamarre-Condon opened the door and left a bobby pin in the front entrance so Baird would “not be under the impression it was me”, the jury heard.

Baird was asleep when Lamarre-Condon walked into his room and picked up his phone that was charging on the bedside table.

Lamarre-Condon claimed he put the device in airplane mode so it would not vibrate, the court heard.

But he dropped the charger and “panicked”, leaving him with a “split-second decision”, he told the jury.

“Do I sit here and have a conversation about why I was on his phone … or do I run?” he said from the witness box.

Baird did not realise it was Lamarre-Condon and began to chase the him the jury heard.

Lamarre-Condon told the court: “He was screaming out to who he believed was a random saying, ‘Let’s go cunt you’re lucky I don’t have a fucking bat or a knife with me.’”

When he realised he still had Baird’s wallet and phone, he threw it back at him.

The two men started seeing each other in late 2022, broke up in April 2023, and began seeing each other again later that year, the court heard. Lamarre-Condon told the court he posted a photo of a bouquet on to his own Instagram story in November 2023 while Baird was in Melbourne.

He said it was to give the impression the flowers were from Baird and he wanted to see if another man Baird was seeing would message him and say, “Well I’m also dating Jesse.”

Asked if he had gone through Baird’s phone around this time, Lamarre-Condon told the court he looked at Baird’s messages with that other man while the TV presenter was in the shower.

Baird later asked Lamarre-Condon if he went through his phone to block someone and the former officer told the court he denied it.

The two went back and forth about the situation before Lamarre-Condon sent Baird a voice message saying: “Yes I did block [the man] on your phone, [the bouquet] was to try to insinuate they were from you when they weren’t.

“I completely owned up to it, I was truthful and honest 10 hours later,” the former officer told the court.

Shortly afterwards, Baird ended things with Lamarre-Condon and asked him to not contact him again.

In the following days, Lamarre-Condon said he saw scratches on the rims of his Tesla and believed they were caused by Baird.

He told the court: “I know tit-for-tat isn’t right, I did go to the street where Jesse parked his car and did pour water into the fuel tank.”

Stratton also brought up the pair’s first breakup in April 2023.

Lamarre-Condon told the court he asked Baird if he could collect his things from his home.

The jury heard that some time after 21 April, he went to Baird’s house and saw his bedroom light was on through his sheer curtain.

“I saw Jesse having sex with a man I did not know,” Lamarre-Condon said.

“I paused for about five seconds … I immediately left, I didn’t stay like a little creep, I didn’t take any photos.”

Lamarre-Condon claims ‘daily bullying’ at job

Lamarre-Condon accused a former supervisor of making homophobic remarks while he was working as an openly gay police officer.

“He would say things such as ‘I used to bash gay people while in Jindabyne,’” Lamarre-Condon told the court.

On one occasion, when responding to a domestic violence report, the supervisor allegedly said “Let’s go get these fucking faggots”, the jury was told.

His voice shaking, bringing a tissue to his eye, Lamarre-Condon told the jury on another occasion, a coworker shot himself in the head. He recalled in court the last conversation the pair had.

“Nothing appeared out of normal to me, nothing about his behaviour suggested what he was about to do,” Lamarre-Condon told the court.

“[He later] went to his desk, took out his gun whilst off duty and shot himself in the head at work.”

Lamarre-Condon’s coworkers found their deceased colleague, the court was told.

The accused responded to questions about confronting situations he had encountered while working as a police officer. He told the court he could remember 12 to 15 incidents graphically.

Lamarre-Condon said he had “seen people that have jumped in front of trains, I have seen multiple hangings”.

“Daily bullying” led Lamarre-Condon to transfer to the police youth command division to “escape” officers “tormenting” him at Surry Hills police station, he told the jury.

He told the jury his experiences at work made him feel suicidal.

Lamarre-Condon’s defence team has previously claimed Baird and Davies were accidentally shot in two separate struggles with the accused when he was acting in “self-defence”.

The former officer cleaned up the scene and disposed of the bodies afterwards because he “panicked considerably”, the defence lawyer Stratton previously said.

The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.

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