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Canberra Today 6°/12° | Saturday, April 27, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Cop accused of murder sacked from force

NSW Police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon has been sacked from the force. (James Gourley/AAP PHOTOS)

By Samantha Lock in Sydney

A NSW senior constable accused of killing two men using his police weapon has been sacked from the force.

Beau Lamarre-Condon, 28, is being held in custody after he was charged with murdering Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29, in Sydney’s east.

The off-duty officer allegedly used his police-issued gun to kill the couple after entering Mr Baird’s home in inner-city Paddington on February 19.

NSW Police confirmed Lamarre-Condon had been removed from the force on Friday.

“Under section 181D of the Police Act 1990, the commissioner has the ability to remove officers if she has lost confidence in their suitability to continue as a police officer,” a police statement said.

The law states an officer can be dismissed if the police chief believes them unsuitable due to concerns about their “competence, integrity, performance or conduct”.

The decision can be appealed to the Industrial Relations Commission on the basis that it is harsh, unreasonable or unjust.

Detectives allege the February 19 attack was premeditated after a months-long campaign of “predatory behaviour” targeting Mr Baird, who Lamarre-Condon briefly dated.

A triple-zero call was made from Mr Davies’ mobile phone four minutes after neighbours heard gunshots at the Paddington house.

A patrol car was later sent searching for the source of the call, which was disconnected before anyone spoke.

But officers were unable to locate the user and did not attend Mr Baird’s house at the time.

The couple’s bodies were not located until February 27, when they were found inside surfboard bags at the fence line of a rural property in Bungonia near Goulburn, about 200km southwest of Sydney.

The former senior constable is alleged to have acted alone but divulged “partial admissions” to others before handing himself in after travelling more than 1000km from Sydney to Bungonia and Newcastle in a rented van during his attempts to cover up the crimes.

An independent probe, overseen by a senior Victorian officer, will look into the access and storage of officers’ firearms following the double killing.

The investigation will also probe the recruitment and assessment processes that allowed Lamarre-Condon to join NSW police ranks.

The 28-year-old joined the force in 2019 and previously ran a celebrity blog, posing with dozens of A-listers including Taylor Swift, Selena Gomez, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus and Harry Styles.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb has since come under fire for her handling of the case, accused of taking too long to front the public after Lamarre-Condon was charged, deflecting media scrutiny to her deputy and using flippant language to describe the crimes.

She branded Lamarre-Condon as an outlier, describing his case as unique “in all of history that I can remember” and described the attacks as a “crime of passion” during a bumbling press conference.

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Thank you,

Ian Meikle, editor

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