Beau Lamarre-Condon has claimed in court he was diagnosed with cancer by a naturopath and been questioned about a post-breakup message to Jesse Baird where he referred to the diagnosis.
But Lamarre-Condon told the court on Thursday he could not name the naturopath or the location of their practice, claiming there had been new developments and stores had been “cleared out”.
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.
On Thursday, during Lamarre-Condon’s sixth day in the witness box, he was asked about a message he asked a friend to send to Baird after they stopped seeing each other in November 2022.
In the Instagram message, which was seen by the court, the friend tells Baird that Lamarre-Condon had been told “he had a cancerous tumour growing in his left shoulder joint/ligament area” which could result in him having his arm amputated.
Under cross-examination, Lamarre-Condon said he saw a “naturopathic doctor” at Bondi Junction in October or November 2022.
He was seeking medication that contained magic mushrooms for PTSD and asked her about a lump near his shoulder joint, which he believed may have been a cyst.
“She told me she believed it was a form of sporadic cancer,” Lamarre-Condon told the court. “I don’t remember which one.”
Lamarre-Condon asked her what the worst case scenario was if it was left untreated and she allegedly told him a patient’s arm could be amputated.
Asked by crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC to name the clinician, he said he did not know and had only seen her once.
“It’s not a lie, Mr Crown,” Lamarre-Condon told the NSW supreme court.
He claimed he has since told many family members to go and find this person’s practice but there has been development at Bondi Junction and commercial properties have been cleared out.
Lamarre-Condon said the naturopath told him to get a biopsy from Westmead hospital.
“A naturopath recommended you get a biopsy at Westmead… isn’t the whole point of naturopaths to avoid orthodox medicine?” Hatfield asked.
Lamarre-Condon said she recommended someone she knew at Westmead but he did not follow through and instead took alternative medications including taxanes, vincristine tablets and cannabis oil injections that he sourced online.
He told the court he had his own beliefs about natural forms of medication and issues like the Covid-19 vaccine.
“I had seen people die of blood clots and adverse reactions to it, that’s the truth,” Lamarre-Condon said.
The message Lamarre-Condon’s friend sent to Baird referenced the cancer “growing larger” but the former officer told this court this aspect was not true.
‘All these messages are a lie’
Lamarre-Condon and Baird were seeing each other in 2022 and 2023, the jury has heard.
Hatfield suggested the former police officer “lied to [Baird] and deceived him numerous times throughout your relationship”. Lamarre-Condon agreed, saying: “On a number of occasions.”
Lamarre-Condon told the court he posted a photo of a bouquet of flowers on a florist’s Instagram page in November to “give the insinuation Jesse did send it to me”.
During that period, Baird was in Melbourne and the photo was captioned: “When he’s in Melbourne but still sends you these.”
The former officer said he and Baird were not in an exclusive relationship and had seen other men.
But Lamarre-Condon had posted it to his close friends story on Instagram, with its settings adjusted so only the man who Baird was seeing could view the post.
“I wanted to see if [the man Baird was seeing] was going to message me saying if he was in a relationship with Jesse or not,” Lamarre-Condon told the court.
The accused admitted to using Baird’s phone a few days later, blocking the man and deleting the messages they had sent each other.
“I was wrong and I shouldn’t have done that, but I did do it,” he said.
When Baird texted him about the flowers story, Lamarre-Condon replied in a message: “I’m confused why you’re asking me about that.”
Hatfield suggested: “That’s another form of gaslighting isn’t it? Painting yourself as the victim when you’re the person lying?”
Lamarre-Condon responded: “Well no … this is all just me denying it.”
In the messages, Lamarre-Condon then told Baird the flowers were sent from his stepfather to his mother, who had recently injured her ankle.
He ordered a bouquet from the florist that looked exactly the same as the phone he posted, telling the jury he was getting it for his mum.
He then sent a photo of his mother and the flowers to Baird.
The crown prosecutor read further texts between Lamarre-Condon and Baird and accused the former officer of making out that he was being unreasonable by asking questions, to which Lamarre-Condon agreed.
“Yes, all these messages are a lie,” Lamarre-Condon said.
Hatfield suggested to the accused that his problem was “[Baird] didn’t like you anywhere near as much as you liked him”.
“Your unrequited love turned into obsession, didn’t it?” the prosecutor said.
Lamarre-Condon said this wasn’t the case.
When Hatfield asked, “You wronged him in a number of ways, hadn’t you?”
Lamarre-Condon responded: “Yes, I agree, in certain aspects.”
Lamarre-Condon admits to throwing Baird’s phone off bridge
Lamarre-Condon was asked what he did with Baird’s phone after the alleged murders.
He told the court it was thrown off Tom Uglys Bridge near the Sutherland Shire in Sydney’s south.
“I didn’t want to have any evidence of Jesse’s phone on me … I did throw it off the bridge,” Lamarre-Condon he said
As part of his cross-examination, Hatfield put to him: “You did [that to] destroy evidence on Jesse’s phone that might incriminate you.”
Lamarre-Condon responded: “Essentially, yes.”
The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.
