Police officer who tasered 95-year-old gran with dementia twice claims he wanted to avoid ‘violent confrontation’

The police officer who tasered a 95-year-old gran with dementia twice claimed he wanted to avoid ‘violent confrontation’.

In the early hours of 17 May 2023, Snr Cosnt Kristian White was asleep off-duty when he was called in from home.

The 34-year-old was asked to attend the Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma, New South Wales, Australia, to assist ambulance officers who were dealing with an ‘aggressive’ resident carrying a knife.

White was tasked with attempting to disarm Clare Nowland, a dementia patient who moved with the aid of a walker.

The confrontation lasted just over two minutes, as the officer urged her to drop the knife, warning her he was carrying a taser.

It is then said she stood up and walked towards him – with her walker – and White said: “Bugger it.”

Appearing at the NSW supreme court, it was heard he then discharged his taser, hitting Noland.

The woman then fell and fractured her skull. She died a week later in hospital after suffering inoperable bleeding in the brain.

White’s barrister, Troy Edwards SC, said it’s not in dispute that the injuries from the taser is ultimately what killed her.

However, he added that it’s argued the use of it in the first place was a reasonable use of force.

He explained: “The Police Act of NSW confers on police a duty for the protection of persons from injury or death, and in the circumstances of this case, that includes the protection of the police officers, the paramedics present, the nursing staff present and Mrs Nowland, who was creating the risk of harm.”

After the incident, while Nowland was still alive, White wrote in the Computerised Operational Policing System (Cops) that because ‘a violent confrontation was imminent, and to prevent injury to police, the taser was discharged’.

The trial started yesterday (11 November) as White formally plead not guilty to one count of manslaughter.

Edwards told the jury: “My submission is that Kristian White was acting in the course of his duty when he discharged his taser and that he is not guilty, beyond reasonable doubt, of manslaughter.”

The Australian court also heard how Nowland had picked up two knives from the nursing home kitchen in the middle of the night, walking into various rooms, disturbing other residents, and risking their safety.

It was also said that she refused to put them down and at one point threw one at a staff member – who was not injured.

Prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC said the crown would argue White was guilty of manslaughter by way of criminal negligence or by way of an unlawful and dangerous act.

“He owed a duty of care to Mrs Nowland, including a duty not to cause her serious harm,” he said.