Beau Lamarre’s lawyer flags mental health defence to murder charges
The lawyer for former police officer and accused double murderer Beau Lamarre has suggested the charges could be defended on mental health grounds.
John Walford said on Tuesday the charges against his client – who is accused of murdering Jesse Baird, 26, and Luke Davies, 29 – could be defendable on mental health grounds.
Walford, a former police officer, spoke to reporters outside court after the case was briefly mentioned in Sydney’s Downing Centre local court.
Related: Beau Lamarre, accused of Jesse Baird and Luke Davies murders, removed from NSW police force
Asked if mental health would likely be part of Lamarre’s defence, Walford said: “Probably.”
Lamarre, 28, is alleged to have murdered Baird and Davies at Baird’s Paddington home on 19 February.
In the brief status hearing on Tuesday, the court heard a partial brief for the case had been provided. The accused did not appear in court.
Deputy chief magistrate Sharon Freund adjourned the case until 18 June.
Outside court, Walford told reporters he was “not sure” how his client would plead.
The solicitor said “for the most part [Lamarre] is OK … It’d be very tough for him at the moment but it’s tough for everyone,” Walford said.
The off-duty police officer allegedly used his police-issued gun to shoot and kill the couple in February before hiding their bodies in surfboard bags and driving them to a property near Goulburn about 160km south-west of Sydney.
Lamarre handed himself into Bondi police station and was charged with the men’s murders four days after they were allegedly killed. Their bodies were found near a fence line of the Bungonia property the following week.
Police allege the murder of Baird was premeditated and that Davies was killed because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Lamarre, a serving senior constable at the time of the men’s deaths, was formally discharged from the police force in March.
A memorial service for Davies was held in Melbourne on Sunday, while the couple were both honoured in a candlelit vigil the evening before the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade in March.
- With Australian Associated Press
