‘Watch the movie Saltburn’: Accused double killer grilled over messages about hit film

Accused killer Beau Lamarre-Condon has denied that messages he sent a friend about the hit film Saltburn foreshadowed his alleged plan to murder former TV presenter Jesse Baird.

The former NSW police officer has pleaded not guilty to murdering Baird, 26, a former Network Ten producer and presenter, and Luke Davies, 29, a Qantas flight attendant, on February 19, 2024.

During his final day of cross-examination on Friday, Lamarre-Condon was asked about a series of messages he sent a friend on encrypted messaging app Signal in the days before the alleged murders.

“Watch the movie salt burn [sic]. I see myself playing the lead role of the nerd. It’s a mind f---,” he messaged his friend, dubbed Fiona Rosso in the trial, after 9pm on February 15, 2024.

The following day, he messaged her at 11.30am: “Hey watch the movie salt burn.”

Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, put to Lamarre-Condon that Saltburn was about a murder and it “strongly resonated with you”. “You already had that plan yourself,” Hatfield said.

The accused said that this was “not the case” and it “was the number one movie at the time, produced by Margot Robbie”.

“I watched it like many other people on social media were talking about it at the time,” he told the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney. He denied that he had a plan to murder Baird.

“I never had a plan to harm Jesse at all,” he said. “This was in relation to my acting class.”

Lamarre-Condon messaged the same friend at about 5am on the day of the alleged murders that he had “just gotten rid of all social media for now”.

He denied that he was planning to do something “very bad” to Baird, and said he had been advised to “shut down my social media if I went off on stress leave” from the NSW Police force.

The court has heard that Lamarre-Condon drove a car rented in his mother’s name to Baird’s home on the day the men died. The car had been rented the previous evening.

He rejected an allegation that the hire car was part of his plan to murder Baird, and said that “you wouldn’t bring a vehicle linked to your mum for a murder if that was the plan, Mr Crown, you’d get a stolen vehicle”.

Hatfield replied: “No one’s saying it was a good plan; that’s why you’re sitting here.”

Lamarre-Condon said: “Mr Crown, if I wanted to plan a murder, I would have two stolen vehicles ready to go, I would have a gun that’s not linked to me, I know exactly how to do it.

“I work with youth gangs. It was never a plan to murder anybody.”

The Crown has alleged Lamarre-Condon planned to kill Baird after developing an obsessive and jealous infatuation with him that escalated when the former TV presenter ended their non-exclusive relationship in November 2023. The prosecution case is that he shot Davies to eliminate a witness to the crime.

Lamarre-Condon has told the court he went to Baird’s home to collect some of his belongings and decided to wear an Uber Eats disguise he found on a motorbike that morning to avoid an allegation of harassment that might be levelled against him by Baird.

He said he had his police-issued gun with him as he had contemplated taking his own life on February 18 over work-related trauma, and that he pushed on an open door to enter the house.

He denied a suggestion by Hatfield on Friday that he shot Baird in the back as he was walking or running away from him, and fired a second shot into his temple “in order to execute him”.

He has told the court that Baird lunged at him with a knife, and he shot him once in the shoulder to disarm him while the second shot was an accident.

Lamarre-Condon denied that he shot Davies through Baird’s bedroom door. The defence case is that Davies grabbed the gun and shot himself accidentally while standing in front of the door.

The court has heard that Lamarre-Condon sent a message to a man he had been dating, hours after he allegedly murdered Baird and Davies.

“How was your Monday, Mr?” read the message he sent just before midnight on February 19, 2024.

Hatfield said: “You were completely relaxed, and you were sending a cute message to your boyfriend or your current partner.”

Lamarre-Condon replied: “I was panicking, and I was trying to make everything normal on my end because I was freaking out.”

The accused murderer agreed he treated the bodies of Baird and Davies “in a terrible way”, but denied that a chainsaw he bought on February 21, 2024, had been intended to cut up their bodies.

He said he thought a chainsaw could be used to “cut down the gate” at a rural property where he tried to dispose of the men’s bodies on February 21, 2024.

The court has heard Lamarre-Condon attempted to sink the bodies in a dam at a farm in Bungonia, near Goulburn, owned by the family of a man he had met on Hinge. The man had no knowledge of the plan, the court heard.

When that plan failed, he returned to Sydney late on February 21 without the bodies and bought weights at Kmart Sylvania before returning to Bungonia in the early hours of February 22.

“You stopped at McDonald’s on the way back [to the farm] and bought yourself a frappe and a chicken burger?” Hatfield said. “I did,” Lamarre-Condon said.

The court has heard he brought the bodies back to Sydney before returning to Bungonia later on February 22 and leaving them in surfboard bags outside the fence line of a Greek monastery.

“It was murder, plain and simple,” Hatfield ended his cross-examination.

The accused killer disagreed.

The trial continues.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732), the Men’s Referral Service on 1300 766 491, and Lifeline on 13 11 14.