Former friend tells court Beau Lamarre-Condon asked for help hiding a body

A former friend of Beau Lamarre-Condon has told a jury that nine months before the alleged murders of a Sydney couple, he asked her if he killed someone, would she help hide a body?

Georgia Cook on Monday continued her evidence in Mr Lamarre-Condon's double murder trial and said the conversation, in late May 2023, left her "really scared" and felt "surreal".

"I was just like I don't know, I've no idea," she said.

"In response, he had said 'after I kill them, I would take their stuff and I would put it in a dumpster and I would take their bodies to bushland where no-one would ever find them'."

Mr Lamarre-Condon, a former senior constable, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder and one of aggravated break and enter.

The 31-year-old is accused of shooting Jesse Baird and his new boyfriend, Luke Davies, with a service pistol at Mr Baird's Paddington home, in Sydney's east, in February 2024.

Ms Cook says the conversation with Mr Lamarre-Condon left her "scared".

Friend asked if she would help hide a body

The Crown alleges Mr Lamarre-Condon developed an infatuation with Mr Baird after a brief romance in 2022 and parts of 2023, before Mr Baird told him in April 2023 that he was not ready for a relationship.

Ms Cook has told the jurors that while at dinner with the accused in May 2023, he asked her what she would do if he told her he killed someone, and whether she would help hide a body.

Ms Cook previously said that she told him she would not because she did not want to be haunted, and he laughed and told her not to worry because he had not.

Recalling the conversation today, she said he asked her if she killed someone, what she would do with their body.

The jury has previously heard that after the two young men went missing, bloodied possessions were found in a skip bin in Cronulla, and their bodies were found in surfboard bags at Bungonia, south of Sydney, eight days after the alleged murders.

Ms Cook told the court that after the dinner she started to "pull away" from their friendship. She said she did not tell anyone what the accused said.

"I didn't know what to think, I was really scared," she said.

"I guess hearing a person in power in the police force, it kind of felt like I didn't really have anywhere to go and I was really scared by what I had heard."

The former police officer has pleaded not guilty to two counts of murder.

Under cross-examination, barrister James Lang, representing Mr Lamarre-Condon, put to Ms Cook that the comments she attributed to Mr Lamarre-Condon in her police statement, including the skip bin and bushland location, were things she had read in the media.

"No, the accused did tell me," she replied.

"When someone tells you something that scary or shocking, it's not something that leaves your mind."

Ms Cook was shown a photograph in June 2023 of her sitting behind Mr Lamarre-Condon and smiling. She maintained that this was at a time when she felt scared of the accused.

She was also read a series of text messages, including a June 2024 birthday message she sent to the accused.

Mr Lamarre-Condon smiled in the dock during parts of the cross-examination.

Ms Cook also rejected the suggestion that the conversation about hiding a body was in relation to a joke she had made to the accused.

Last week, jurors were told the defence will argue that Mr Lamarre-Condon did not plan to harm anyone when he went to the Paddington terrace on the morning of the alleged murders.

Mr Lamarre-Condon's lawyers have flagged an argument of self-defence, saying it's their client's case that there were two separate struggles involving the police pistol which resulted in the deaths.

The trial, before Justice Natalie Adams, is now in its second week.

It has an estimated duration of three months.