Beau Lamarre-Condon trial live updates: Former NSW Police officer, alleged double murderer’s cross-examination continues; grilled by Crown over texts to Jesse Baird

Updated November 13, 2026 — 11:03am,first published November 13, 2026 — 10:03am

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Beau Lamarre-Condon’s double murder trial. The accused has returned to the witness box today for further cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC.

The former NSW police officer has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder over the deaths of Jesse Baird, 26, a former TV presenter, and Luke Davies, 29, a Qantas flight attendant. There is no dispute that the men died of gunshot wounds from his police-issued pistol on February 19, 2024, and that the accused disposed of the bodies on February 22, 2024.

The Crown alleges that Lamarre-Condon planned to kill Baird after developing an obsessive and jealous infatuation with him and that he killed Davies, Baird’s boyfriend, to eliminate a witness to his crime.

The defence case is that Lamarre-Condon acted in self-defence. The 31-year-old has told the court he had his police pistol with him because he had contemplated taking his own life the previous night over work-related trauma.

This is the accused’s recent evidence:

• He denied that he was referring to harming or killing Baird when he texted the former TV presenter on November 18, 2023: “You don’t need to worry about seeing me out etc because you won’t exist and no further conversation needs to take place.” Baird had broken up with him on November 16. The accused told the court that he was referring to acknowledging him only.
• Lamarre-Condon said that it was partly true when he claimed he had cancer in a message he sent to Baird from his friend’s Instagram account later in November. A naturopathic doctor in Bondi Junction had told him at the end of October or early November 2023 that a lump on his shoulder appeared to be “a form of sporadic cancer”, he said.
• He said the doctor recommended he get a biopsy. “I did not follow through with the biopsy,” he said. He said he did alternative therapies that he had sourced online.
• He admitted to throwing Baird’s phone off a bridge to destroy potentially incriminating evidence after he died.
• The accused also admitted to “gaslighting” Baird when he denied that he had posted an Instagram story on November 9, 2023, that falsely implied Baird had sent him flowers. He said he later admitted the truth. Lamarre-Condon told the court that he limited the audience for the story to one person, namely, a man Baird had been seeing at this time.
• He rejected a suggestion by the prosecutor that his “unrequited love [for Baird] turned into an obsession”.

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The accused is shown a photo of a text message he sent to a friend in the hours before he shot his police-issued gun in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney, on February 1, 2024.

“Back on my watermelon juice,” he said around midday, with a photo of the juice and a fruit salad.

He has told the court he was contemplating taking his own life at this time over work-related trauma. He rejected a suggestion by the prosecutor that he did not appear to be depressed at this time and said that depression “comes and goes”.

Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, puts to Lamarre-Condon that he asked the same police officer friend about the traceability of phones because he was thinking about a plan to murder Jesse Baird.

“That is not correct,” the accused said. “I would not bring a phone or any electronic device to any crime.”

He said he wanted to move into a NSW Police unit that targeted dial-a-dealer drug operations, and they talked about drug dealers using burner phones.

“Drug dealers aren’t going to turn their phones off; they won’t have much business,” Hatfield said.

Lamarre-Condon said he was not talking about the traceability of phones when they were off but did discuss “tracking their phones”.

Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, asks Lamarre-Condon about evidence given by one of his police officer friends, that he told her in January 2024 that Jesse Baird was dating a man called Luke.

The accused told the court that he did not say Luke and that he referred to another man.

“I have never been aware of Jesse and Luke,” the accused said.

The friend had given evidence that Lamarre-Condon appeared angry, a claim he denies.

“You’re still angry with Jesse Baird, aren’t you?” Hatfield said.

“I am not,” the accused replied.

The court has heard that Lamarre-Condon contacted a man he met on the dating app Hinge on his “Bob Ballard” phone on January 26, 2024.

The court has heard that the accused later tried and failed to dispose of the bodies of Baird and Davies at a farm belonging to the man’s family on February 21, 2024.

The Hinge date said in a statement read in court that he had invited Lamarre-Condon to the farm in November 2023, and they spent one night there.

The accused told the court he tried to contact the man on the “Bob Ballard” phone to “catch up” in January 2024, because he realised that the man had blocked him, and he believed they had ended on “good terms”.

He denied a suggestion by Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, that he contacted the man to try to find out “something about the farm” and whether he would be there, and that he was thinking about killing Jesse Baird.

“I have never thought about murdering Jesse Baird, no,” he said.

The accused has denied that he was aware that Jesse Baird was dating Luke Davies before the men’s deaths on February 19, 2024.

He said that after February 19, he “went and blocked numerous accounts from my own Instagram account because of this incident”, including Davies’ account.

“I even blocked Jesse’s family members and stuff like that,” he said. “I didn’t want any of that.”

He said he deactivated his social media accounts on the evening of February 19, after the men’s deaths.

“I suggest that you did know about the relationship between Luke Davies and Jesse Baird,” Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, said.

“I disagree,” the accused said.

Lamarre-Condon agreed with Hatfield that he started using his burner phone around January 26.

Lamarre-Condon has denied that he stole NSW Police training bullets after attending a session at Blacktown Pistol Club, but said he stole them from Miranda police station.

“I would have just said it if it was from the training day,” he said.

He has admitted that he fired two of those bullets on February 1, 2024, in the Royal National Park, south of Sydney.

The Crown case is that this formed part of his preparation for murdering Jesse Baird, but Lamarre-Condon told the court he was contemplating taking his own life over work-related trauma.

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Lamarre-Condon has returned to the witness box and is being asked about a SIM card he obtained in the name of Bob Ballard. He said he “wouldn’t call it a burner phone”.

Records suggest it was purchased online on January 16, 2024, before the alleged murders a month later.

He said he bought this SIM because he wanted to team up with a number of current and former police officers to make a complaint, and he did not want to be targeted by police.

He was also asked about a conversation he had with a police colleague on January 13, 2024, about phones.

He said this was related to a study he was undertaking as part of his policing duties. As a NSW Police officer, he already knew that “if you’re going to commit an offence, you don’t take any electronic devices”, he said.

“You leave them at home,” he said.

Lamarre-Condon was asked by the prosecution for the first time on Thursday about a 1600-word message he sent to Jesse Baird from his friend’s Instagram account after the former TV presenter had broken up with him in November 2023.

By this stage, Baird had asked the accused not to contact him and had blocked him on Instagram.

In the message, Lamarre-Condon poses as his friend and claims that he has cancer. He also refers to Baird losing his job after Network Ten’s Studio 10 was axed.

Lamarre-Condon admitted on Thursday that parts of the message were a lie but told the court that he used natural therapies he sourced online after a naturopathic doctor in Bondi Junction suggested he may have a “sporadic form of cancer”. He told the court that she recommended he get a biopsy, but he did not.

Among the evidence tendered in Lamarre-Condon’s trial is a long text message he sent to Jesse Baird after the former TV presenter ended their relationship in November 2023. The court has that the men were not in an exclusive relationship.

The accused sent a draft of the message to a friend on November 18, 2023. He has told the court that the final version that he sent to Baird, a copy of which is not in evidence, included a line at the end referring to “my clothing and my surfboard” that he wanted to retrieve from Baird’s house.

He rejected a suggestion by Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, on Thursday that the message did not include this request.

The Crown case is that Lamarre-Condon bought a surfboard cover on February 17, 2023, as part of his plan to kill Baird and use the bag for his body.

Lamarre-Condon has denied this allegation and said he needed a new cover for a surfboard he had at Baird’s terrace. He has told the court that he went to the Paddington home on the day of Baird’s death to retrieve his clothing and surfboard, as well as a Cartier ring worth $25,000.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Beau Lamarre-Condon’s double murder trial. The accused has returned to the witness box today for further cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC.

The former NSW police officer has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder over the deaths of Jesse Baird, 26, a former TV presenter, and Luke Davies, 29, a Qantas flight attendant. There is no dispute that the men died of gunshot wounds from his police-issued pistol on February 19, 2024, and that the accused disposed of the bodies on February 22, 2024.

The Crown alleges that Lamarre-Condon planned to kill Baird after developing an obsessive and jealous infatuation with him and that he killed Davies, Baird’s boyfriend, to eliminate a witness to his crime.