EXCLUSIVE
Accused police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon has been moved to Australia’s most secretive jail as his mental health continues to deteriorate after nearly six months in solitary confinement.
Lamarre-Condon was recently transferred to a clandestine unit within Sydney’s Long Bay prison complex called the Special Purpose Centre (SPC), which houses New South Wales’ most vulnerable inmates.
Currently, SPC houses about 30 of the state’s 13,000 prisoners and is so off-grid that most Correctional Services staff can’t access information about who is there.
Sometimes referred to as The Pound because of the number of “dogs” – or informants – it houses, once inmates enter the walls of the SPC, their whereabouts no longer appear in the Correctional Services computer system.
Rather than being identified by name or the Master Index Number (MIN) that each prisoner receives when he or she first enters the prison, SPC occupants are identified internally by a number that follows the letter P.
“It’s basically for inmates who can’t be put anywhere else because they would be killed,” a prison source told Daily Mail Australia.
Mark Standen, the former deputy chief of the NSW Crime Commission who was jailed over a $120 million drugs plot, spent most of his 16 years behind bars at the SPC before his release in June.
Lamarre-Condon is accused of murdering former Studio Ten presenter Jesse Baird and Qantas flight attendant Luke Davies in Paddington on February 19.
Accused police murderer Beau Lamarre-Condon (above) has been moved to Australia’s most secretive jail as his mental health continues to deteriorate after nearly six months in strict isolation.
He was previously held in protective custody at the Metropolitan Reception and Detention Centre (MRRC) in Silverwater, in Sydney’s west, before being transferred to the SPC about six weeks ago.
Earlier this month, the 28-year-old was additionally charged with aggravated burglary and the murder charges were specified to be related to domestic violence.
Lamarre-Condon’s lawyer, John Walford, said his client was having difficulty adjusting to his situation as his legal team waited for the remainder of the prosecution’s brief against him to be handed over.
“Generally speaking, I can say he’s feeling overwhelmed,” Walford told the Daily Mail Australia. “His mental health issues are improving.”
‘He’s frustrated because he can’t say anything right now. He’s feeling very frustrated. He wants to be able to say something.
“What I can tell you is that right now he’s not doing well. He’s declining.”
Mr Walford only learned of the new charge and that police were officially alleging the deaths of Mr Baird and Mr Davies were acts of domestic violence through media reports.
While the case moves through the courts, Lamarre-Condon can expect to remain in her current location.
Beaue Lamarre-Condon is accused of murdering former Studio Ten presenter Jesse Baird (right) and Qantas flight attendant Luke Davies (left) in Paddington on February 19.
While Goulburn Supermax Prison holds prisoners who pose a danger to staff and other prisoners, the SPC holds those who are at extreme risk of physical harm.
Sometimes it even takes criminals that smaller states can’t keep safe, like Perth biker Sid ‘Snot’ Reid, who turned on his fellow Gypsy Joker bikers.
Reid became perhaps Australia’s most infamous whistleblower after being arrested for the 2001 car firebombing murders of former Western Australian CIB chief Don Hancock and his friend Lou Lewis.
A retired senior prison officer who had never been inside the facility despite working in the New South Wales prison system for decades said few Corrective Services staff were familiar with the site.
“All inmates are identified by a number, not by their name,” he explained.
“I always thought the place was a ‘luxury cemetery’. Basically, it’s a very expensive protection unit.”
Wayne Astill, who is serving a maximum sentence of 23 years for raping 14 inmates while a corrections officer at Dillwynia Correctional Centre, has called the SPC home since shortly after his arrest.
Former Federal Court Judge Marcus Einfeld served time at the SPC after being convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice for claiming a dead woman was driving her car when she received a speeding ticket.
Disdained rapist and prison informant Fred Many spent his final years of incarceration in the SPC, while gangster Neddy Smith spent a long stint there after cooperating with the ICAC in the early 1990s.
Swedish model Charlotte Lindstrom, who tried to hire a hitman to kill two witnesses testifying against her drug-dealing fiancé, was another notorious SPC resident.
Lamarre-Condon was recently transferred to a unit within Sydney’s Long Bay prison complex called the Special Purpose Centre, which houses New South Wales’ most vulnerable inmates. File image
Lamarre-Condon is accused of shooting Mr Baird, 26, and Mr Davies, 29, with his service pistol at Mr Baird’s home and then dumping their bodies two days later in the Southern Tablelands.
Mr Baird and Lamarre-Condon had previously been involved in what police described as an on-off romance, but Mr Baird had not wanted to continue a relationship.
Investigators say Lamarre-Condon displayed “predatory” behavior in the lead-up to the killings.
Lamarre-Condon, who used to regularly post pictures of himself with international stars on social media, handed himself in to police in Bondi four days after Baird and Davies were shot dead.
Following a brief court appearance that afternoon, Lamarre-Condon was transferred to the MRRC, where he was placed in protective custody due to his status as a police officer.
Prison authorities also considered him potentially at risk because he was accused of extremely serious crimes, had attracted a saturation of media attention and had never been in prison before.
The detective spoke to Lamarre-Condon at the MRRC on February 24 after receiving legal advice from Mr Walford.
Lamarre-Condon was previously held in protective custody at the Metropolitan Reception and Remand Centre at Silverwater (above) in Sydney’s west before being transferred to the SPC.
Police later located the bodies of Mr Baird and Mr Davies at a property in Bungonia, about 180 kilometres southwest of Sydney.
The former senior officer was sacked by the New South Wales Police Force on March 22 and is due to appear in court again on August 13.
Lamarre-Condon has undergone a preliminary psychiatric evaluation and his lawyers are awaiting a secondary report.
Mr Walford, a former detective who spent 20 years with the NSW Police Force, said that once the Director of Public Prosecutions had submitted a full report of evidence, he could seek appropriate legal directions from Lamarre-Condon.
“We’re desperately trying to get everything served,” Walford said.
“I hope we can resolve this matter and take it to court sooner rather than later, to be honest.”
Mr Walford had previously said the murder charges “might be” defensible and that Lamarre-Condon’s mental health would likely feature in any case he brought to court.
“We expect mental health to come into play,” he said in March. “It certainly seems like there are things we need to consider in that regard.”
A spokeswoman for Corrective Services NSW said the department did not comment on the circumstances of any particular inmate.
