EXCLUSIVE
Murder suspect Beau Lamarre-Condon has been transferred to Australia’s most secret prison, his mental health continuing to deteriorate after nearly six months in strict isolation.
Lamarre-Condon was recently transferred to a secret section of Sydney’s Long Bay prison complex, the Special Purpose Centre (SPC), which holds some of NSW’s most vulnerable prisoners.
The SPC currently holds about 30 of the state’s 13,000 inmates. It is so far off the grid that most Corrections officials do not have access to information about who is incarcerated there.
Sometimes it is called The Kennel because of the number of ‘dogs’ – or informants – that are housed here. Once prisoners enter the walls of the SPC, their details no longer appear on the Corrective Services computer system.
Instead of the name or Master Index Number (MIN) given to each prisoner when he or she is first taken into custody, SPC inmates are identified internally by a number followed by the letter P.
“It is primarily for prisoners who cannot be housed anywhere else because they would otherwise be killed,” a prison source told Daily Mail Australia.
Mark Standen, the former deputy director of the NSW Crime Commission who was jailed for a $120 million drugs offence, spent most of his 16 years behind bars in the SPC before being released 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 murder police officer Beau Lamarre-Condon (above) has been transferred to Australia’s most secretive prison as his mental health continues to deteriorate after nearly six months in strict isolation
He was previously in protective custody at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception 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 charged with aggravated burglary and it was specified that the killing was related to a domestic violence incident.
According to Lamarre-Condon’s attorney John Walford, his client had difficulty adjusting to his situation as his legal team waited for service of the remainder of the prosecution’s case file against him.
“I can say in general terms that he is feeling overwhelmed,” Walford told Daily Mail Australia. “His mental health issues are easing.
“He’s frustrated because he can’t say anything right now. He feels very frustrated. He wants to be able to say something.
“I can tell you that he is not doing well at the moment. He is deteriorating.”
Mr Walford only learned of the new charges through the media and that police were officially treating the deaths of Mr Baird and Mr Davies as domestic violence.
While the case is pending in court, Lamarre-Condon can expect to remain in his current location.
Beaue Lamarre-Condon is accused of the murders of former Studio Ten presenter Jesse Baird (right) and Qantas flight attendant Luke Davies (left) at Paddington on February 19
While Supermax in Goulburn houses prisoners who pose a danger to staff and other prisoners, the SPC houses people who are at high risk of physical harm.
Sometimes even offenders who would not be safe in smaller states are prosecuted, such as Perth biker Sid ‘Snot’ Reid, who turned on his Gypsy Joker biker friends.
Reid became perhaps Australia’s most notorious supergrass after his 2001 arrest for the firebombing of former West Australian CIB boss Don Hancock and his friend Lou Lewis.
A retired prison officer who had never been to the prison despite his years of working in the NSW prison system said few Corrective Services staff were familiar with the site.
“All prisoners are identified by number, not by name,” he said.
“I’ve always thought of the place as a ‘luxury cemetery’. It’s actually a very expensive protection unit.”
Wayne Astill, who is serving a maximum sentence of 23 years in prison for raping 14 female inmates while a prison officer at Dillwynia Correctional Centre, has called the SPC home since shortly after his arrest.
Former Federal Court Judge Marcus Einfeld was in custody at the SPC after being convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. He claimed that a dead woman was driving his car when he got a speeding ticket.
Disgraced rapist and prison informant Fred Many spent the final years of his incarceration in the SPC, while gangster Neddy Smith spent a long period there after cooperating with ICAC in the early 1990s.
Swedish model Charlotte Lindstrom, who tried to hire a hitman to kill two witnesses who were to testify against her drug-dealing fiancé, was also a notorious SPC resident.
Lamarre-Condon was recently transferred to a unit at Sydney’s Long Bay prison complex called the Special Purpose Centre, which houses NSW’s most vulnerable prisoners.
Lamarre-Condon is accused of shooting 26-year-old Mr Baird and 29-year-old Mr Davies with his service pistol at Mr Baird’s home and dumping their bodies in the Southern Tablelands two days later.
Mr. Baird and Lamarre-Condon previously had an on-again, off-again relationship, as police called it, but Mr. Baird did not want a relationship.
Investigators allege Lamarre-Condon engaged in “predatory” behavior prior to the killings.
Lamarre-Condon, who regularly posted photos of himself with international stars on social media, handed herself in to police in Bondi four days after Baird and Davies were shot dead.
After 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 dangerous because he was accused of very serious crimes, had received a lot 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 in protective custody at the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre in Silverwater (above) in western Sydney before being transferred to the SPC
Police subsequently found the bodies of Mr Baird and Mr Davies on a property in Bungonia, about 180km south-west of Sydney.
The former police chief was sacked by the New South Wales Police on March 22 and is due back in court on August 13.
Lamarre-Condon has undergone a preliminary psychiatric evaluation and his attorneys are awaiting a secondary report.
Mr Walford, a former detective who spent 20 years with the New South Wales Police, said once the Director of Public Prosecutions had submitted a full statement of evidence he could ask Lamarre-Condon for appropriate legal instructions.
“We are desperately trying to get everything on our plate,” Mr Walford said.
“I hope we can get this case resolved and brought to trial as quickly as possible, quite frankly.”
Mr Walford has previously said the murder charge could be “defensible” and that Lamarre-Condon’s mental health would likely play a role in the case he would present in court.
“Mental health is something that we expect to play a role,” he said in March. “It certainly seems like there are things that we need to look at in that way.”
A spokeswoman for Corrective Services NSW said the department did not comment on the conditions of individual prisoners.