Luke Davies’ family cried as audio of a triple‑zero call, placed from his phone on the morning he and his partner, Jesse Baird, were allegedly murdered, was played in court. The recording was aired in the New South Wales Supreme Court on Friday during the double‑murder trial of former Sydney police officer Beau Lamarre‑Condon. Lamarre‑Condon, 31, is accused of fatally shooting Davies and Baird with his police service weapon in Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one charge of aggravated break and enter.
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC told the court that the call was made to the emergency line from Davies’ phone at 9.50 a.m. on Friday 19 February 2024. In the recording, movement can be heard before a muffled voice says “fuck off” and the call drops out. An attempt to call back goes straight to voicemail where Davies says, “Hi, you’ve reached Luke, please leave a message and I’ll get back to you.” Police were sent to patrol the vicinity but could not pinpoint the exact address where the call originated. CCTV later played to the court showed Lamarre‑Condon buying a second surfboard bag at Decathlon in Miranda Westfield, walking straight to the surfboard section, picking up a cover and paying in cash. Davies and Baird’s bodies were found days later in two surfboard bags near the fence line of a monastery in Bungonia.
Earlier on Friday, Ben Higginson, who served with the NSW Police Force Criminal Investigation Team in Sydney, told the court that he had worked with Lamarre‑Condon the day before the murders. The two police officers had been working at a pro‑Palestine protest on 18 February 2024 when Lamarre‑Condon asked Higginson about work. Higginson replied that it had been a “bit of a rough time” as he had been investigating the murder of Lilie James. Higginson became emotional when discussing the case, noting the crime had occurred at his old school, so it “hit home a bit more”. When Lamarre‑Condon asked about James’s murder he seemed “blase”, the investigator said, and he thought Paul was “stupid for doing it on CCTV”. The defence lawyer John Stratton SC said during his opening statement that Baird and Davies were fatally shot in “self‑defence” after struggles with the policeman, and that Lamarre‑Condon immediately began cleaning up the scene because he “panicked”. The trial before Justice Natalie Adams continues.
