Beau Lamarre-Condon denies making fake Grindr account for Jesse Baird, double murder trial hears

Beau Lamarre-Condon has denied making a fake dating app account of Jesse Baird after their breakup, a court has heard.

The former police officer is accused of fatally shooting Baird and his new partner, 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.

Earlier during his double murder trial at the New South Wales supreme court, a friend of Lamarre-Condon’s gave evidence that he had made fake profiles of Baird on apps like Grindr.

Sitting in the witness box for the fifth day, Lamarre-Condon was asked whether he told a friend he had made a fake Grindr account in relation to Baird, after one of the former officer’s friends earlier gave evidence about the matter.

Under cross-examination from crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC on Wednesday, Lamarre-Condon said that had “never happened”.

Lamarre-Condon told the court that after his breakup with Baird, he had tried to create a fake account for a man the presenter had been seeing.

“I attempted to create a fake account with an email I believed was from him to see if it was active … to see if he was in an exclusive relationship with Jesse or not,” he said.

“But I didn’t make an account or operate it as him.”

He claimed he was only seeing whether that address was available on the app as it would indicate whether or not he was using the service.

Hatfield suggested the email he had entered was not that man’s address and asked whether Lamarre-Condon had created it himself.

The former policeman responded: “I can’t confirm if this is 100% [his] email or not, this is something I had seen on social media.”

‘I definitely didn’t manufacture a bump-in’

In August 2023, while Lamarre-Condon and Baird were still broken up, the former officer allegedly broke into Baird’s home and attempted to go through his phone.

The court previously heard Lamarre-Condon accidentally woke Baird up while using his phone and was chased out of the house by the other man.

On Wednesday, Hatfield asked whether the former officer “manufactured” an opportunity to bump into Baird after the alleged break-in to “sus out whether he suspected it was you or not”.

Lamarre-Condon responded: “I definitely didn’t manufacture a bump-in”, telling the court he made plans with Baird to meet him in the following days.

Asked by the prosecution if he was going to tell Baird it was him who entered the home, Lamarre-Condon said: “Yes and he didn’t ask me”.

Hatfield then asked Lamarre-Condon if he had turned his phone onto airplane mode for an hour on the night of the alleged break-in.

He agreed, but repeated that he entered the terrace house with a key that had been left out for him.

A few weeks later, Lamarre-Condon met with Baird on the presenter’s birthday.

That night, the former officer texted a friend, telling her: “he rejected my kiss”.

Hatfield asked: “Is it the case the reason why you’re sending the text… is that he rejected your kiss and that’s what happened?”

But Lamarre-Condon denied this, saying: “no that’s not correct that was at the start … we definitely did hook up on this night”.

The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.