Jury hears voice messages sent by Beau Lamarre-Condon after alleged Sydney murders

Voice messages in which Beau Lamarre-Condon discussed his health, social plans and mental wellbeing after allegedly killing Jesse Baird and Luke Davies were played to a New South Wales supreme court jury on Tuesday, 3 November. The recordings were sent to a man he had met through a dating app.

Lamarre-Condon, 31, is accused of shooting the couple dead with his police service weapon at Baird’s Paddington home in Sydney on 19 February 2024. He has denied two murder charges and a charge of aggravated break and enter. His trial is continuing before Justice Natalie Adams.

In a statement read to the jury, the recipient of the messages said he and Lamarre-Condon had matched on a dating app in early 2024. They began dating casually without entering a formal relationship. On the evening of the alleged killings, Lamarre-Condon sent him a text asking about his Monday. The man answered the following morning, and Lamarre-Condon responded several hours later with a recording.

In that message, sent on 20 February 2024, Lamarre-Condon apologised for being out of contact, saying he had been very ill and was due to have an operation the next day. He said he was trying to “get back into a positive mindset”. He also described missing the gym and having no plans to return that week.

The jury heard that Lamarre-Condon intended to withdraw from a boat party that weekend because he was unhappy with how his body looked. Responding to the other man’s attempts to make plans, he mentioned a Taylor Swift concert and said any arrangements earlier that day would depend on the outcome of his surgery. He said he was in bed feeling unwell and had also left friends’ messages unanswered. In a second recording immediately afterwards, he apologised for complaining and described himself as generally positive.

Later that evening, the man asked why Lamarre-Condon’s Instagram had disappeared. In a voice message sent around midnight on 21 February, Lamarre-Condon reassured him that he had not been blocked. He said he had shut down his social media accounts because he needed a mental break and spoke about how addictive using them could be.

Jurors had previously viewed CCTV showing Lamarre-Condon at St Vincent’s hospital. A surgeon also gave evidence that he underwent a minor operation on 21 February 2024. That morning, Lamarre-Condon sent the man a photograph from his hospital bed and a message saying he was looking forward to sleeping.

The defence contends that Baird and Davies were shot accidentally during two separate struggles with Lamarre-Condon while he was acting in self-defence. Defence lawyer John Stratton SC has told the court that Lamarre-Condon subsequently cleaned the scene and disposed of the bodies because he had panicked considerably.