Ex-Officer in Sydney Murder Trial Says Secret SIM Was to Expose Police Bullying

Beau Lamarre-Condon, a former New South Wales police officer accused of killing two men, told a Sydney court on Friday that he bought a SIM card under a false name a month before the shootings because he wanted to take allegations of bullying in the police force to the media, The Guardian reported. He has pleaded not guilty.

It was his seventh day in the witness box in the NSW Supreme Court, according to The Guardian, and ABC News (Australia) said he was continuing to answer questions after close to a week of cross-examination by the Crown.

What the accused is charged with

Lamarre-Condon is accused of fatally shooting his former partner, Jesse Baird, and Baird’s new partner, Luke Davies, with his police-issued weapon at Baird’s home in the Sydney suburb of Paddington on Feb. 19, 2024. The Guardian reported that he has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter. The trial is before Justice Natalie Adams.

Key dates raised in court

Jan. 15, 2024: Lamarre-Condon bought a SIM card under the name “Bob Ballard.” He told the jury this had nothing to do with Baird and was meant to help him gather statements about bullying by a sergeant without using his own phone.
Feb. 1 and Feb. 18, 2024: The prosecution raised the question of whether his gun could have been audited after he fired two bullets in a national park on those dates. He accepted that supervisor checks on police firearms were lax, ABC reported.
Feb. 18, 2024: He signed out his gun and took his mother to a Hertz rental store. He said he kept the weapon on an appointment belt because he had no safe at home and that his mother did not know he had it. He also said he put his phone on airplane mode during the drive because he did not want the device listening.
Feb. 19, 2024: The day of the alleged killings. He told the court a friend had encouraged him to apply for stress leave, and that messages sent in the hours before were about suicide, not a plan to harm anyone.

How the prosecution challenged him

Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC put it to Lamarre-Condon that he used the new SIM to contact current and former officers, yet his phone records showed contact with only one officer on it. Lamarre-Condon replied that the records captured only ordinary calls, saying “You can’t see what I did on Signal.” Hatfield suggested he could have used the encrypted app on his normal phone. Lamarre-Condon said police could force him to unlock his own device if he were investigated for talking to the media.

Hatfield also asked why he held Davies’s contact details. Lamarre-Condon said they were linked to his Instagram, and that he later blocked many accounts, including members of Baird’s family, and deactivated his social media soon after the shootings.

ABC’s live coverage said he denied asking two friends for a gun, saying he had asked one whether a man she knew had a gun in alleged domestic violence circumstances. He also denied telling a friend he planned to do something bad to Baird, saying the friend knew he was going to collect his belongings from Baird’s home. The accused argued he would not plan a murder using a car linked to his mother. According to the live blog, Hatfield replied that no one was calling it a good plan.

What’s at stake

The jury must decide whether the account Lamarre-Condon has given over seven days matches the evidence on the charges of murder and aggravated break and enter. The statements described here are his claims and the prosecution’s questions, not findings of fact. The charges remain allegations, and he is presumed innocent unless a verdict says otherwise.

The trial continues.

Support is available in Australia: the NSW Domestic Violence Line on 1800 656 463, Lifeline on 131 114, and emergency services on Triple Zero (000).

Around Prague, based on reporting by ABC News (Australia), The Guardian

Cover photo: Kgbo / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped

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