Beau Lamarre-Condon told the court that he did stage a break-in when he took Jesse Baird’s phone in the middle of the night to read his texts, but claims he didn’t actually break in.

The former cop has pleaded not guilty to break and enter over the incident on August 17, 2023.

Prosecutors allege he went into Baird’s home to take his phone and wallet, but shoved a bobby pin in the lock to make it look like a break-in.

In court on Thursday, Lamarre-Condon said that was partly true, but he let himself in with a key Baird left for him in the letterbox.

Lamarre-Condon said he was supposed to stay at Baird’s house that night anyway, and he knew he would arrive after Baird was asleep.

At that time, they had only just rekindled their romantic relationship after breaking up in April 2023 because Baird didn’t want a serious boyfriend.

Lamarre-Condon told the court: ‘I wanted to see if he was in another relationship or not because I didn’t want to commence a relationship with him if he was with someone else.’

He told the court that he thought he could check Baird’s phone while he was asleep.

The court heard he didn’t want Baird to wake up and find him checking his phone, so he decided to take the phone across the road.

He put a pin in the door because, if Baird woke up, he wanted Baird to think someone had broken into his house.

‘On the off chance he was to wake up he wouldn’t know I went through his phone, and if he didn’t wake up, I could put the key back in the letterbox and jump into bed with him,’ he said.

‘So I put the pin in the door, I put the key back in the letterbox, I walked into his bedroom, his phone was next to his bed, Jesse was asleep in bed.

‘His phone was next to his bedside table, his phone was on charge, I picked up his phone with one hand and his wallet with the other, and I put his phone on flight mode, unplugged it and the charger dropped and Jesse woke up.’

Lamarre-Condon said he froze, as Baird – who hadn’t recognised him – yelled: ‘Let’s go, c**t!’

‘You’re lucky I don’t have a f***ing knife or a bat with me!’

He said that he made a split-second decision to run, rather than having an ‘hour-long’ conversation with Baird about why he was going through his phone.

Lamarre-Condon said he didn’t realise he was still holding Baird’s wallet and phone as he ran down the street, and as Baird chased him.

‘It was stupid,’ he told the court.