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Courts / Sydney, NSW

Beau Lamarre-Condon trial: Accused double murderer claims he killed Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in self-defence

7NEWS
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  • Beau Lamarre-Condon, 31, appeared before the Supreme Court in Sydney on Tuesday for the second day of his trial for the alleged double murder of Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29, in their Paddington home in February 2024.
  • Stratton said the deaths of Baird and Davies was “of any view a tragedy” and that the defence wouldn’t contend submissions from witnesses about his client and Baird before being in a relationship.
  • The defence claims Baird was wielding a knife at the time and two shots were fired during the struggle, killing the 26-year-old before the gun flew into the living room.
  • Lamarre-Condon allegedly told the witness he had killed the pair with a gun, made a gun gesture with his hand and said “pew pew”.

4 sentences from our version of the report, chosen to cover it. Nothing here is written; every line is in the article below. How

Beau Lamarre-Condon appeared before the Supreme Court in Sydney on Tuesday for the second day of his trial for the alleged double murder of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in their Paddington home in February 2024.

Headline check

All two things this headline claims are in the report.

Figures, names and quoted words in the headline, looked for in the report itself — not in the summary above. How this is checked

A former police officer accused of killing his former boyfriend and another man will try to prove he acted in self-defence.

Beau Lamarre-Condon, 31, appeared before the Supreme Court in Sydney on Tuesday for the second day of his trial for the alleged double murder of Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29, in their Paddington home in February 2024.

After the Crown laid out its case to the 15-member jury, Lamarre-Condon’s barrister John Stratton told the court how the defence intends to argue what happened.

Stratton said the deaths of Baird and Davies was “of any view a tragedy” and that the defence wouldn’t contend submissions from witnesses about his client and Baird before being in a relationship.

Lamarre-Condon wore an Uber Eats outfit with a motorcycle helmet only to “masquerade as a delivery person if someone was to open the door” — not to avoid being identified by other potential witnesses as the Crown argued — according to Stratton.

The defence claims Baird was wielding a knife at the time and two shots were fired during the struggle, killing the 26-year-old before the gun flew into the living room.

Stratton said his client called triple-0 soon after but was interrupted by Davies, who had picked up the gun.

The defence’s opening statement to the jury followed the Crown laying out its own case on Monday, which will include an alleged confession soon after the deaths of Baird and Davies.

Lamarre-Condon allegedly told the witness he had killed the pair with a gun, made a gun gesture with his hand and said “pew pew”.

Shortened to 1 minute of reading, this version reads 7.9 on the Niral Score.

You are reading our version, not theirs. This is 7NEWS's report shortened to its most important sentences, in plainer words, with verdicts and loaded words taken out. Plain description stays, and so do adjectives that carry a fact, such as "former" or "federal". The reporting, the facts and the quotations are theirs — quotations are never edited — and the indicators beside it measure this version. Hover or tap Adjectives to see every one left in the text.

How outlets headlined it

Each outlet's own headline. Struck through: the loaded words our version leaves out. Plainest first.

  • 7NEWS Beau Lamarre-Condon trial: Accused double murderer claims he killed Jesse Baird and Luke Davies in self-defence plain
  • 7NEWS Beau Lamarre-Condon: Trial begins for former cop over alleged murder of Sydney couple plain
  • The Sydney Morning Herald Beau Lamarre-Condon trial as it happened: Former NSW Police officer says he acted in self-defence as trial continues over alleged murders of Jesse Baird, Luke Davies plain
  • The Guardian Australia Former cop Beau Lamarre-Condon argues self-defence in double murder trial, citing struggle over gun plain
  • ABC News Double murder-accused Beau Lamarre-Condon acted in 'self defence', court told plain
  • Brisbane Times Ex-cop accused of double murder claims self-defence plain

How each outlet filed it

Also covered by The Sydney Morning Herald, WAtoday, Brisbane Times, The Age. We hold only their summary of it, not the report, so there is nothing of theirs to measure here.

Outlet Niral ScoreAdjectivesSourcingSentimentGenderHappiness
7NEWSas they published this story 14.2 6 60 -0.5 0 1.4
7NEWS 7.4 3 49 -0.1 0 15.6
The Guardian Australia 7.3 7 77 -0.5 3.6 19.6
ABC News 8.7 5 76 -0.2 0 16.9
Mundane Readneutralized from The Guardian Australia 6.4 7 77 -0.5 0 19.6

Also reported by

13 Australian outlets reported this story. These are the ones we do not read; their headlines are matched to this one automatically, so an occasional match may be a different story.

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The same event elsewhere

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