Grandmother tasered: Police Commissioner Karen makes a shocking admission

The NSW Police Commissioner has admitted she has not spoken to the officer who tasered a 95-year-old great-grandmother and left her in need of end-of-life care.

Clare Nowland, a dementia sufferer who is 157cm tall and weighs only 43kg, was tasered by a senior officer at a retirement home in Cooma, NSW at around 4am on Wednesday.

The mother of eight was using a walker when she was hit by the shock device at Yallambee Lodge. She wouldn’t have dropped a steak knife.

Police Commissioner Karen Webb has already faced criticism for saying she would not look at body-worn CCTV footage of the incident.

And she also raised eyebrows after appearing on Sky News on Monday morning when she confirmed she had not spoken to the officer involved in the incident.

When asked directly by host Laura Jayes if she had spoken to the police officer, she said, “No, I didn’t. I’ll do it at some point, as I said, it’s an ongoing live study.

“He is being looked after by the police under his orders, and when the time is right, I will speak to him.”

Webb discussed the bodycam footage and underlined her decision to watch it until the investigation into the confrontation was completed.

She said: ‘I want to make an informed decision with access to the full evidence. The evidence carried on the body is evidence and looking at that now without having the ability to look at all the evidence at once may taint my view of this case.

“It is important that I have an objective view and I will when I have the rest of the evidence in this investigation.

‘I haven’t watched it. If I ever have to look at it as a decision maker, I will.’

She first sparked outrage on Saturday after claiming it was “not necessary” to view the footage of the incident.

Police had said Ms Nowland was ‘armed’ with a steak knife and moving at a ‘slow pace’ before being tasered and left in critical condition.

Officers claim she was approaching police “at a slow pace” when she was shot with the Taser by a senior officer with 12 years of experience.

The shock caused her to fall and hit her head. The great-grandmother is now receiving end-of-life care at Cooma District Hospital, surrounded by her family.

Why the police press release didn’t mention ‘Taser’

Webb and NSW police have also been battling the heat for their initial statement on the confrontation – which the commissioner approved.

That statement did not mention the Taser and only said that there had been an “interaction” between the great-grandmother and the police.

2GB Radio host Ben Fordham also grilled Webb on Mondayasking why the original NSW statement on the matter failed to inform the public of what had actually happened.

“It was necessary for us to make sure the family was aware of the circumstances,” Commissioner Webb replied.

“We didn’t want the family to hear on radio and TV what happened to their mother, so we had to be a little sensitive about that and when we could talk about it, we did.”

The broadcaster then questioned whether the decision not to mention the Tasering was really intended to protect Ms Nowland’s family, or to “conceal anything that might embarrass or be embarrassing to the police?”

‘We’re not hiding. I want to answer, as does the family,” the commissioner said, adding that she had seen the original statement.

‘It was important to me that we took the family into account.’

Fordham then asked if she was behind the decision to leave out the Tasering in the press release – which she admitted she saw before it was sent out.

“Yes, that’s right, as I said, the Nowland family deserves to hear from the police what happened rather than hearing about it in the media,” Commissioner Webb said.

The officer who fired the electric shock weapon joined the force 12 years ago and has since been taken off active duty.

The critical incident investigation has been elevated to ‘level one’ because Ms Nowland suffered an injury that could lead to her death.

Detectives from the State Homicide Squad and Law Enforcement Conduct Commission are investigating what happened and whether the forced use was appropriate.

The local priest, Father Mark Croker, visited Ms Nowland on Sunday and held a Catholic Mass beside her hospital bed. He said that although Mrs. Nowland was demented, she was in good shape and could carry on a conversation.

“The thing about Clare is that the dementia wasn’t quite set in yet, you could still have a conversation with her… she could get a little confused, but that’s an age thing,” he told the Daily Telegraph .