Beau Lamarre-Condon denies obsession with Jesse Baird as double murder trial testimony continues
Former New South Wales police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon told the NSW supreme court he was not obsessed with television presenter Jesse Baird from the start of their relationship, saying he would have liked Baird even if he had been “a garbage cleaner” and that he valued him as a person rather than for his job. Lamarre-Condon is accused of fatally shooting Baird and Baird’s new partner, Luke Davies, with his police service weapon at Baird’s home in Paddington, Sydney, on 19 February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.
On his fourth day in the witness box, he was cross-examined by crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC. Lamarre-Condon said he and Baird met for sexual encounters in October and November 2022 before romantic dates began in December. He denied Hatfield’s suggestion that he was obsessed from the outset, telling the jury he never cared about “showing Jesse off” and wanted Baird to meet his friends because he thought he was genuine. Asked about February and March 2023, he rejected “obsessed” but accepted “smitten.” Messages around the time dating began in which he wrote “it sounds crazy, I love him” were, he said, in line with how he often told friends he loved them, and different from being “in” love.
He described insecurity when Baird did not reply quickly as “natural,” and said he joked with friends that they were “white girl crazy,” meaning they should stop second-guessing themselves. That banter, including calling each other “a crazy bitch,” was with female friends, not heterosexual male friends. He admitted looking through Baird’s phone on a brief cabin holiday in regional NSW, unfollowing two to three people, and said curiosity about whether Baird was messaging other men romantically got the better of him, adding he was not making excuses. When Hatfield turned to messages with a friend, Lamarre-Condon accused “Mr Crown” of trying to mislead him; Justice Natalie Adams told him to answer the question and that his defence lawyer would object if the crown were misleading.
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