Alleged killer Beau Lamarre-Condon ‘faked cancer’ in text after break-up with Ch10 journo, jury told
An ex-cop has been accused of faking cancer in a text to a Channel 10 presenter after their break-up, months before he allegedly killed the journalist.
A friend of alleged killer Beau Lamarre-Condon has told a jury he guilt-tripped her into letting him send a text from her phone in which he faked cancer to try to win back his ex-boyfriend.
The former police officer, 31, is accused of disguising himself as an Uber Eats rider before murdering TV presenter Jesse Baird and his new partner Luke Davies at the journalist’s home in Paddington, Sydney in February 2024.
He is arguing self-defence as he fights the murder allegations before a jury trial in the NSW Supreme Court.
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Mr Baird casually dated Mr Lamarre-Condon but cut all contact with him in November 2023 after realising he’d been going through his phone, the jury has been told.
Days later, Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly convinced his friend Shay Davison to let him use her phone to send a lengthy text message of more than 1600 words to Mr Baird, in which tried to blame his behaviour on a fake cancer diagnosis.
“Worst-case scenario could result in, I don’t even want to say, or having to possibly have his arm amputated,” the message from the woman’s phone allegedly read.
Jurors were told that in the message, Mr Lamarre-Condon claimed he was having surgery and had been prescribed medications for chemo and radiation treatment that can affect how a person would normally act.
“He always has spoken so highly of you Jesse, and I know there is deep love there … it definitely won’t happen overnight but it can 110 per cent come back.”
Mr Hatfield said it was the Crown case that the cancer diagnosis “was a lie”.
“The accused did not have cancer, nor was he being treated,” Mr Hatfield told the jury.
Ms Davison on Friday told the court she did not want to let Mr Lamarre-Condon send the message, but eventually gave in as she felt pressured.
“He told me that he wanted the messages to come from me as one last try to win Jesse back,” Ms Davison said.
“He put a lot of pressure on me. He said that he never asks anything from me, I’m his friend, he’s so upset.
“I felt like (he was) guilt-tripping to me and using our friendship to get what he wanted out of that.”
She told the jury Mr Lamarre-Condon didn’t want her to read the message and claimed there were medical details in it he did not want her to know until after he had a surgery that December.
Ms Davison later had her husband read the message to her without the medical parts, telling the jury there were lies in the message about her.
Mr Lamarre-Condon allegedly wrote in the text that he had made the impulsive decision to look at Mr Baird’s texts and unintentionally came across other messages and “just saw red and blocked him”, the jury was told.
More to come
