Police officer who shocked woman, 95, with a Taser found guilty of manslaughter

By Hilary Whiteman, CNN

Brisbane, Australia (CNN) — A police officer who fatally shocked a 95-year-old woman with a Taser in an Australian nursing home has been found guilty of manslaughter after the jury found that the great-grandmother, who was holding a knife, did not pose an “imminent” threat.

Senior Constable Kristian White was one of two police officers called in May last year to Yallambee Lodge, a nursing home in regional New South Wales, when staff asked for help with a resident who was holding two knives as she pushed a mobility walker around the facility.

Clare Nowland – who had dementia – had refused her carers’ requests to return to her room and threw a knife at a staff member that fell on the floor before they dialed emergency services, according to court documents.

The court heard she had been cornered in an office by police and paramedics and had refused to put down a steak knife when White deployed his Taser.

The jury deliberated for just over three days before returning a verdict of guilty to one charge of manslaughter against White for breaching his duty of care to Nowland and engaging in an unlawful and dangerous act.

White had told the court he believed that a “violent confrontation was imminent” – the condition for firing a Taser under standard operating procedures in New South Wales. The rules state that a Taser may only be used against elderly people in “exceptional circumstances.”

The prosecution had argued that White’s use of the Taser was “utterly unnecessary” and an excessive use of force against a frail, elderly woman. After she was shocked with the device, Nowland fell backwards, hitting her head. She died a week later in hospital.

Nowland’s family released a statement after the guilty verdict, thanking the judge, jury and prosecutors, and saying it would take “some time to come to terms with the jury’s confirmation that Clare’s death at the hands of a serving NSW police officer was a criminal and unjustified act.”

He will be sentenced at a later date.

How the incident unfolded

Closed-circuit video played to the jury on Monday showed how the incident unfolded in the administrative building of the home around 5 a.m. on May 17, 2023.

In the witness box, White was asked to explain what was going through his mind as he and his partner approached Nowland, who was found by carers sitting in a small office. She was wearing pajamas and had a walking frame nearby for support.

Asked for his first impressions of Nowland, White agreed that she was elderly, but took issue with the suggestion she may have been frail.

“Bit of a subjective question,” White said. When asked again, he said, “not that frail, no.”

While White agreed that Nowland was small in stature, when asked if she was weak, he said he “wouldn’t be able to give an answer.”

On the video, White can be heard repeatedly asking Nowland to put the knife on the table. After she refused and stood up, with one hand on the walker, White pulled out his Taser.

“You see this?” White asked her. “This is a Taser. Drop it now,” he said, referring to the knife. Then after a few more appeals, he warned her “you’re gonna get tased.”

After more warnings, White can be heard saying, “Nah, bugger it” and deployed the Taser.

The court heard White had the Taser pointed at Nowland, its light shining in her eyes, for one minute before he used it.

Asked what he meant by “Nah, bugger it,” and if it was a sign he was “fed up” and had abandoned attempts to resolve the issue, he disagreed.

“I was going to be firing a Taser at a 95-year-old. I felt it was my only option at the time to ensure a safe resolution of the incident,” he said.

“I completely understand it was going to cause her some sort of, you know, injury and pain, but I felt that the risk had elevated to the point that, you know, it required a resolution, and it’s not our job to shy away from these types of incidents,” White said.

“I was not going to essentially gamble on the risk of having her out in the corridor,” he added.

In summing up, Crown Prosecutor Brett Hatfield pointed to contradictions in White’s testimony as he tried to justify his actions in deploying the Taser.

“Answers were malleable and changing, even within a few questions,” he said, while also describing some of White’s responses as “evasive and unpersuasive.”

“This was not a mere breach of the standard of care,” said Hatfield. “This was such an utterly unnecessary and obviously excessive use of force on Mrs. Nowland that it warrants punishment for manslaughter,” he said.

In a judgment published Friday, Justice Ian Harrison said the case was unlike any other he’d confronted in his career, because White did not act out of the typical motivations people have for inflicting harm, such as anger, malice or revenge.

Instead, Nowland’s death was the result of the police officer’s failure to recognize that he was not confronted with a serious threat, he added.

“It was no more and no less than an error of judgment with fatal consequences,” Harrison wrote.

White has been suspended from the NSW Police force without pay and remains free on bail before a sentencing hearing next year that may see him imprisoned.

Harrison wrote that he needed to assess the risks of other inmates targeting White as a convicted police officer.

In a statement released Friday, Nowland’s family said they were “disappointed” White wasn’t in custody, and were “struggling to understand” why he was able to move freely in the community despite having been found guilty of manslaughter.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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