Photo forced Lamarre-Condon into 'damage control', court told

Read the original at ABC News (AU) ↗
ABC News (AU) · collected 2026-10-06 · by Jamie McKinnell

Quick Summary

A Sydney court heard testimony from Senior Constable Nicole Harvell about her interactions with accused murderer Beau Lamarre-Condon, who she says became obsessed and paranoid after ending his relationship with Jesse Baird in November 2023. The officer detailed how Lamarre-Condon went into "damage control" mode on Instagram after posting a photo of flowers falsely suggesting Baird had sent them to him. Lamarre-Condon faces two counts of murder for allegedly shooting Baird and his boyfriend, Luke Davies, with a police pistol in February 2024 at Baird's home in Paddington.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-10-06, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

In the NSW Supreme Court, a friend of Beau Lamarre-Condon testified that Lamarre-Condon went into "damage control" after posting an internet photo of flowers on Instagram to falsely suggest they were from Jesse Baird. The 31-year-old is accused of shooting and killing Baird and his boyfriend, Luke Davies, with a police pistol at Baird's home in Paddington, Sydney, on February 19, 2024. Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one count of aggravated break and enter, claiming self-defense. Prosecutors argue that Lamarre-Condon developed an obsessive infatuation with Baird following a casual relationship in 2022, leading to stalking behavior.

Written for “Lamarre-Condon Court Case” on 2026-10-06, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.
Why this leaning score
This article does not take a side on a contested political question, so it has no leaning score. That is an answer rather than a gap: a match report or a rescue can be warmly or critically written without being left or right, and scoring it anyway is how approval of a subject gets recorded as a political position.
No political leaning scored for article 59441 · logged 2026-10-06

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
28
claim-shaped sentences
Uncertain
11%
3 of 28 hedged
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
Correction & hedging signals
60.8
corrections and hedging in what we collected; not a measure of accuracy
Outlets on this story
1
Crime & Law
Narrative spread
1
articles carrying this framing
Analyzed 2026-10-06 · how these are computed

Story

📰 Lamarre-Condon Court Case
Crime & Law · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 11% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
The Guardian
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 5% hedged 1 of 20 📰 publisher trust 68
“The articles describe different aspects of the trial, with one focusing on CCTV footage and the other on a police officer's testimony about Lamarre-Condon's behavior.”
ABC News (AU)
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 12% hedged 6 of 48 📰 publisher trust 61
“The articles describe different testimonies given during the trial, involving distinct witnesses and evidence.”
Daily Mail
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 33% hedged 4 of 12 📰 publisher trust 65
“The articles describe different aspects of the trial and distinct incidents related to Beau Lamarre-Condon's actions, rather than a single specific occurrence.”

Publisher

ABC News (AU) · 2157 article(s) · 2 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 2 correction(s)
2026-09-15
Canberra man posed as teenage girl to obtain child abuse material
2026-09-07
'Her career's finished': Fugitive Sydney developer's daughter avoids jail

Who wrote this

Jamie McKinnell
11 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 In messages between the witness and the accused from May 2023, Mr Lamarre-Condon said Mr Baird was not viewing any of his Instagram stories and that he "wanted him to see me living my best life". "I think he must have been going through it this week, his Spotify playlist is very depresso," he said in one message.
🔮 His lawyers have indicated there will be a self defence argument.
🔮 In short: A friend of former police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon has told his double murder trial he once asked her if she would help hide a body.
🔮 Beau Lamarre-Condon would go through his phone and delete contacts, the court heard, and Mr Baird told his mum that in late 2023, he had told the then-NSW Police officer he did not want to see him again.
🔮 In short: A friend of Beau Lamarre-Condon told the court the murder accused had asked what she would do if he said, "I killed somebody". She also told the court he had asked, "Would you help me hide the body?" before then "laughing it off".
🔮 Mr Baird's previous long-term partner, Corey Dean Thorpe, on Wednesday gave evidence that in late 2023, Mr Baird told him the defendant would post videos and photos on Instagram of Mr Baird to make it seem like they were in a relationship.
🔮 In short: Former Sydney police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon will argue he acted in self defence on the day he is accused of murdering Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.
🔮 A woman who killed and dismembered her husband before disposing of his remains in bins around south-west Sydney has been handed a minimum jail term of three years, and will be eligible for parole next October.
🔮 Had the application succeeded, it would have seen 55 strict conditions imposed on the 22-year-old, which would have been "highly restrictive" of his liberty.
Also by Jamie McKinnell
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 11 articles by Jamie McKinnell →

Topics

Bali Instagram Spotify Sydney the NSW Supreme Court

Subjects

Baird PERSON · 15× Lamarre-Condon PERSON · 13× Harvell PERSON · 7× Instagram ORG · 3× Beau Lamarre-Condon PERSON · 2× Jesse Baird PERSON · 2× Melbourne GPE · 2× Spotify ORG · 2× Sydney GPE · 2× the NSW Supreme Court ORG · 1×

Narrative

The accused got his mother to pose holding the bouquet with a handwritten note, acting like she got that from her partner." Mr Lamarre-Condon spent $160 on the replica bouquet and told his mother what happened before asking her to pose, Ms Harvell said.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-10-06
🔮 In messages between the witness and the accused from May 2023, Mr Lamarre-Condon said Mr Baird was not viewing any of his Instagram stories and that he "wanted him to see me living my best life". "I think he must have been going through it this week, his Spotify playlist is very depresso," he said in one message.
2026-10-06 · ABC News (AU)
Photo forced Lamarre-Condon into 'damage control', court told · assertive framing

Claims (28 extracted, 3 hedged)

In short: A police officer who worked with accused double murderer Beau Lamarre-Condon has told a Sydney court he became obsessive and paranoid about alleged victim Jesse Baird. asserted
he → work → Baird
The officer said she believed Mr Baird was "playing games" with Mr Lamarre-Condon. asserted
Baird → say → Condon
Mr Lamarre-Condon has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, with his lawyers raising a self defence argument. asserted
lawyers → plead → argument
A friend of Beau Lamarre-Condon has told a jury how he went into "damage control" after using a photo of flowers from the internet in an Instagram post to falsely suggest he received the bouquet from television presenter Jesse Baird. asserted
he → tell → Baird
Mr Lamarre-Condon is on trial in the NSW Supreme Court, accused of shooting Mr Baird and his boyfriend, Luke Davies, with a police pistol in Mr Baird's home at Paddington, in Sydney's east, on February 19, 2024. asserted
Condon → accuse → February
The 31-year-old has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one of aggravated break and enter, and his lawyers have raised a self-defence argument. asserted
lawyers → plead → argument
The Crown's case is that Mr Lamarre-Condon developed a jealous infatuation with Mr Baird after being somewhat romantically involved with him from 2022, but that Mr Baird considered it casual and was allegedly stalked in the lead up to his death. uncertain
it → develop → death
Jurors were on Tuesday read a large amount of messages between Mr Lamarre-Condon and Senior Constable Nicole Harvell, with whom he became close with after March 2023 following several shifts together. asserted
he → read → shifts
She told the court their conversations were predominantly about Mr Baird and she was "being a bit of a counsellor" through what she thought was the defendant's paranoia that Mr Baird was not as interested as him. asserted
Baird → tell → him
The jury heard the accused told Ms Harvell it was his decision to "end it" with Mr Baird in April 2023, after seeing messages on his phone with another man. asserted
it → hear → man
She said Mr Lamarre-Condon knew the code to unlock Mr Baird's phone and had gone through it, while on another occasion a message had popped up while he had the phone for some reason. asserted
he → say → reason
Ms Harvell told the court after that apparent split, Mr Lamarre-Condon seemed satisfied with his decision but then appeared to become "quite fixated on Jesse". asserted
Condon → tell → Jesse
In messages between the witness and the accused from May 2023, Mr Lamarre-Condon said Mr Baird was not viewing any of his Instagram stories and that he "wanted him to see me living my best life". "I think he must have been going through it this week, his Spotify playlist is very depresso," he said in one message. uncertain
he → accuse → message
Ms Harvell said Mr Lamarre-Condon had previously logged into Mr Baird's Spotify account during a car trip with him and was still "actively monitoring … what had been played". asserted
what → say → him
By October, Mr Lamarre-Condon had messaged Ms Harvell that Mr Baird was coming with him on a Bali trip and that he was "in a different place" and "really happy" in terms of the connection not being a relationship. asserted
connection → message → terms
But Mr Baird cut things off firmly in mid-November, the jury has heard. asserted
jury → cut → November
'Damage control' Mr Lamarre-Condon uploaded a story to his Instagram account using the app's "close friends" function, which allows users to limit who can view the content. asserted
who → upload → content
The court has previously heard the post showed a bouquet of flowers with a caption reading "When he's in Melbourne but still sends you these." asserted
he → hear → these
At the time, Mr Baird was in Melbourne but had not sent any flowers. asserted
Baird → send → flowers
Ms Harvell said the accused told her he used a photo of flowers from the internet and tailored who could see the post in order to get other men to "back off", but someone had taken a screenshot and sent the post to Mr Baird, who confronted Mr Lamarre-Condon. uncertain
who → say → Condon
"The accused essentially went into damage control where he took the photo to a florist, paid the florist to replicate that bouquet exactly," she told the court. " asserted
she → accuse → court
The accused got his mother to pose holding the bouquet with a handwritten note, acting like she got that from her partner." Mr Lamarre-Condon spent $160 on the replica bouquet and told his mother what happened before asking her to pose, Ms Harvell said. asserted
Harvell → accuse → her
Ms Harvell said the defendant was initially "sticking to the story" but then attempted to contact Mr Baird to explain. asserted
defendant → say → Baird
Mr Baird blocked him. asserted
Baird → block → him
In other messages after that development, Ms Harvell told the accused that Mr Baird had "caused you to do this". asserted
you → tell → this
She told the court today that she believed Mr Baird was "playing games a bit, playing with the accused's mind and heart". asserted
Baird → tell → mind
"That caused the accused to get upset and do the things he did with the phone and the flowers," she said. asserted
she → cause → phone
The trial continues on Wednesday. asserted
trial → continue → Wednesday
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