Speaker 1: From The Australian. I'm Claire Harvey. We're hoping you're having
Speaker 1: a great holiday break and today we're bringing you one
Speaker 1: of our favorite episodes from the year. This episode originally
Speaker 1: aired on February twenty six after former New South Wales
Speaker 1: police officer bo Lamar Condon was charged with the murder
Speaker 1: of TV presenter Jesse Baird and his partner, flight attendant
Speaker 1: Luke Davies. The matter has moved slowly through the courts
Speaker 1: this year, and Lamar Condon has yet to enter a plea.
Speaker 1: The Front will return with all new episodes on Monday,
Speaker 1: January thirteenth. Just hit follow or subscribe to make sure
Speaker 1: you don't miss an episode. I don't know. When celebrities
Speaker 1: like American reality star Courtney Kardashian come to places like Australia,
Speaker 1: their rental homes and hotels are surrounded by two types
Speaker 1: of people working paparazzi photographers, some of whom fly around
Speaker 1: the world stalking their prey, and celebrity fans. I got
Speaker 1: three got through, they got the street guts stream. The
Speaker 1: celebrity fans are ordinary people who work out where celebrities
Speaker 1: will be staying or dining or shopping. Once we would
Speaker 1: have called them autograph hunters. Now they're looking for one thing, only,
Speaker 1: the most valuable commodity of all in this social media age,
Speaker 1: a selfie. Courtney Kardashian was in Sydney with her husband
Speaker 1: Travis Barker earlier this month, and mopping her along with
Speaker 1: the paps and the other celebrity fans, was a darkheaded
Speaker 1: guy aged in his late.
Speaker 2: Twenties looking at a laugh for it.
Speaker 1: His name is bo Lamar Condon and he got a
Speaker 1: selfie with Kardashian, which he uploaded to his Instagram to
Speaker 1: go with the shots of him with Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga,
Speaker 1: Dua Lipa, lots of the world's biggest names. But the
Speaker 1: thing that makes bau Lamar Condon different is that he's
Speaker 1: a serving New South Wales police officer.
Speaker 3: It was as if he was essentially hanging out quote
Speaker 3: unquote backstage with them, but the reality of it all
Speaker 3: was that he'd spent hours waiting outside her house and
Speaker 3: followed her to take a quick three second selfie with her.
Speaker 3: It really gives a fascinating insight into his mind.
Speaker 1: Liam Mendez is a reporter with The Australian. He first
Speaker 1: met bo Lamar around ten years ago for the first
Speaker 1: time at a movie premiere where Liam was taking photograph.
Speaker 3: Lamar Condon was in his late teens, quite skinny and scrawny,
Speaker 3: which is obviously quite different to his appearance now. But
Speaker 3: what really stood out to me was his pure obsession
Speaker 3: with certain celebrities. He would spend hours at red carpets,
Speaker 3: airports and hotels waiting to get photographs with these celebrities.
Speaker 3: And the interesting thing is is that he built this
Speaker 3: online persona that he was friends with these celebrities and
Speaker 3: that he was hanging out with them. He also asked
Speaker 3: me to photograph his twentieth birthday party to.
Speaker 1: The media in Sydney. Bolamar Condon has seemed a bit
Speaker 1: of a curiosity, this slightly eccentric, seeming young corp.
Speaker 3: Another interesting part of him was his social media profiles,
Speaker 3: where he had all of these photographs of him apparently
Speaker 3: jet setting away on private jets and he was carrying
Speaker 3: expensive designer bags, but in reality he was driving around
Speaker 3: in a twenty twelve model Gray Holden cruise. He really
Speaker 3: wanted to paint a picture of himself online. It was
Speaker 3: a very curated image.
Speaker 1: A few years ago, a different kind of video of
Speaker 1: Lamar Condon went viral. The video showed Lamar Condon in Darlinghurst,
Speaker 1: inner City, Sydney, in his police uniform, which in the
Speaker 1: New South Wales Police includes a taser, capsicum spray and
Speaker 1: a semi automatic glock pistol, tussling with a thirty one
Speaker 1: year old man. It's twenty twenty. Lamar Condon is shouting,
Speaker 1: put your hands in front of you. Now. That crackle
Speaker 1: you can hear is the taser, as Lamar Condon fires
Speaker 1: it in close proximity to the man, Chris Bradshaw, who
Speaker 1: has his hands up to protect his face. Bradshaw was
Speaker 1: later convicted of intimidation and resisting rest. Lamar Condon gave
Speaker 1: evidence at his trial and the police investigation cleared Lamar
Speaker 1: Condon of any wrongdoing. And then just in the past
Speaker 1: few days, Lamar Condon's name was suddenly making national news.
Speaker 1: He was the person of interest in the disappearance of
Speaker 1: a Sydney couple. TV presenter Jessebaird and his boyfriend Luke Davies.
Speaker 1: Police have searched a home here on Wait Avenue in
Speaker 1: Balmain and seized several items that they believe are connected
Speaker 1: to police officer Bea Lamark. Just twenty six Jessebaird had
Speaker 1: launched a promising television career backsha.
Speaker 2: An alleged killer and a wanted man strolling barefoot through
Speaker 2: a suburban street in grays Point.
Speaker 1: This is New South.
Speaker 2: Wales cop Beau Lamar Condon and the net is tightening.
Speaker 1: On Wednesday morning, a worker was putting some rubbish in
Speaker 1: a skippin in Cronulla, a beachside suburb forty minutes drive
Speaker 1: south of Sydney's CBD. The worker found something alarming watchers
Speaker 1: credit cards and some clothing that appeared to be covered
Speaker 1: in blood. Police were called. Cronulla Police station is on
Speaker 1: the same block as the club, and they identified the
Speaker 1: items as belonging to Jesse Baird and Luke Davies. That
Speaker 1: led them to Bird's home in Paddington, close to the city,
Speaker 1: where they found large amounts of blood. The afternoon, everyone,
Speaker 1: this is Homicide Squad Commander Danny Doherty.
Speaker 2: Detective Superintendent Danny Doherty, Commander Homicide Squad, State Crime Command.
Speaker 2: This morning, just after ten thirty am, police arrested a
Speaker 2: twenty eight year old man in relation to the suspicious
Speaker 2: disappearance of two men from Paddington. He was arrested at
Speaker 2: Bondi taking away Froo Police station place in custody. The
Speaker 2: update is at this stage charges have been submitted for
Speaker 2: two council murder.
Speaker 1: Forensics officers searching the house found a spent cartridge from
Speaker 1: a gun, not just any gun, a police issue glock.
Speaker 2: One of the main line of the quorras and be
Speaker 2: a strong line of a quarry that there's been a
Speaker 2: forum discharge which were already established. So we found a
Speaker 2: projector on a fired cartridge coach which matches a police
Speaker 2: firearm and that firearm belongs to the twenty eight year
Speaker 2: old man with charge today.
Speaker 1: It's important to note both of mar Condon has been
Speaker 1: charged but hasn't yet entered a plea to the chargers,
Speaker 1: and of course, until the matter reaches court, these are
Speaker 1: unproven allegations. One of those police allegations will be that
Speaker 1: Lamar Condon checked the glock out of the station where
Speaker 1: he works in a youth command engaging with at risk
Speaker 1: young people before committing the murders, then checking it back
Speaker 1: in to another station. It'll also be alleged he was
Speaker 1: previously in a relationship with Jessebaird. Coming up what happens
Speaker 1: next and why this case is deeply sensitive for the
Speaker 1: police and the victim's community. Well, I've got you. The
Speaker 1: Australian has been breaking all the news on this story
Speaker 1: and our subscribers are on top of every development with applots,
Speaker 1: newsletters and live updates around the clock. Check us out
Speaker 1: at Beaustralian dot com dot au and we'll be back
Speaker 1: after this break. There have been big developments in this
Speaker 1: case and you can check out the latest at Beaustralian
Speaker 1: dot com dot au right now. But on Friday, police
Speaker 1: said Bolomar Condon was refusing to reveal anything so for Ie.
Speaker 2: Society, we believe we've got sufficient evidence the charge, but
Speaker 2: in terms of information that we've received directly from that
Speaker 2: person now hasn't assisted us to date.
Speaker 1: Danny Doherty said police weren't yet ready to declare a
Speaker 1: cause of death. What police are alleging is that Lamar
Speaker 1: Condon fired his weapon at the Paddington house and they're
Speaker 1: alleging he killed both Davies and Bed and took their
Speaker 1: bodies from the scene in a white van he'd hired
Speaker 1: from near Sydney Airport. There are allegations Lamar Condon then
Speaker 1: sent messages from Jessebaird's phone telling Jesse's housemates he'd decided
Speaker 1: to move across the country to Perth. The message allegedly
Speaker 1: said he'd come and collect his furniture, but a subsequent
Speaker 1: message purporting to be from Jesse asked the housemates to
Speaker 1: put the furniture out on the street. On Friday, Lamar
Speaker 1: Condon turned himself into police and was arrested. Now he's
Speaker 1: in a cell on remand that is awaiting his court
Speaker 1: appearance in the notorious Metropolitan Remand and Reception Center in
Speaker 1: Sydney's Silver Water Jail. When cops go to jail, they're
Speaker 1: generally put in protective custody in a cell by themselves
Speaker 1: and only allowed to mix with other prisoners in protection.
Speaker 1: All this is happening in a place and at a
Speaker 1: time that's very meaningful for the LGBTQI community. Paddington, where
Speaker 1: the murders allegedly happened, is right at the heart of
Speaker 1: the gay community, and it's the spiritual home of the
Speaker 1: Sydney Gay and Lesbian Marti Gras, a month long festival
Speaker 1: that's happening right now. The famous Marti Gras Parade is
Speaker 1: this Saturday March too. The parade's a celebration these days,
Speaker 1: but for many years it was a protest against discrimination
Speaker 1: and violence suffered by queer people, especially at the hands
Speaker 1: of police. At the first march back in nineteen seventy eight,
Speaker 1: police bashed and arrested dozens. Now the cops march proudly
Speaker 1: in the parade.
Speaker 3: Nope, they can't hear a word. You're sad, but I'll
Speaker 3: tell you what the police marching is coming up here.
Speaker 3: Twelve and a half thousand reasons to smile.
Speaker 1: The marches in Blue include both gay and lesbian liaison
Speaker 1: officers who work directly with the community, and the most
Speaker 1: senior police all the way up to Commissioner Karen Webb,
Speaker 1: the first top cop ever to join the march. Web
Speaker 1: has over the weekend given a formal apology to the
Speaker 1: community after a special inquiry found police were often indifferent, negligent, dismissive,
Speaker 1: or even hostile to the families of queer people murdered
Speaker 1: in hate crimes in decades past. Web will be marching
Speaker 1: this Saturday too, with a community that hasn't forgotten the past,
Speaker 1: and which is waiting for answers about the loss of
Speaker 1: two much loved young men. You can read all the
Speaker 1: nation's best news, sport, politics and business anytime at the
Speaker 1: Australian dot com dot a u