Police officer Kristian White who tasered grandmother Clare Nowland is found guilty of manslaughter

A police officer has been found guilty of unlawfully killing a 95-year-old suffering from dementia after saying ‘bugger it’ and firing his duty Taser at her at a rural nursing home.

Clare Nowland, a great-grandmother, died from injuries sustained when Senior Constable Kristian White, 34, fired the gun at her chest at the Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma on May 17 last year.

The jury heard he gave several warnings as she approached him with both hands on her walker and a knife in hand, before saying “damn it” and firing the gun at her.

Mrs Nowland, a great-grandmother, fell backwards and hit her head on the ground, sustaining serious injuries.

Constable White was tried in the NSW Supreme Court this month after pleading not guilty to manslaughter over the 95-year-old’s death.

After eight days of testimony from witnesses and Officer White himself, the four women and eight men of the jury retired Wednesday to deliberate their verdict.

After four days of deliberation, the jury found Constable White guilty of unlawfully killing Mrs Nowland either by criminal negligence or by a dangerous or criminal act.

The police officer will be sentenced later this year.

Clare Nowland, a 95-year-old great-grandmother, died a week after being struck by Constable White’s Taser at Yallambee Lodge nursing home

The jury was persuaded by Attorney General Brett Hatfield SC that Constable White had breached the duty of care owed to the grandmother because his actions ‘created such a high risk that actual serious bodily harm would occur to (her).’

Mr Hatfield argued that the discharge of the Taser was a disproportionate response to the situation, given the great-grandmother’s advanced age, frailty, lack of mobility and symptoms of dementia.

“This was such a completely unnecessary and manifestly excessive use of force against Ms. Nowland that it warrants a sentence of manslaughter,” he told the jury during his closing statement on Tuesday.

In returning a guilty verdict, the jury rejected the defense of Constable White’s barrister Troy Edwards SC that the response was proportionate to the threat posed by Ms Nowland carrying a knife.

He claimed Constable White’s decision to deploy his Taser was consistent with his duty as a police officer to protect others and prevent a breach of the peace.

Constable White and Acting Sergeant Jessica Pank were called to Yallambee Lodge to respond to a triple-0 call for help with a ‘very aggressive resident’ holding two knives.

The court heard that Mrs Nowland entered the rooms of four residents just before 5am and threw a knife at one of the care home staff.

“It’s not like the suspect could have turned on his heels… It was his job to come to a resolution,” Edwards said in his closing statement Tuesday.

Ms Nowland was holding one of the steak knives pictured when she was tasered. She fell backwards and hit her head during the incident and died in hospital a week later

Constable White (pictured which arrived at court last week) will be sentenced at a later date

“He had to disarm her.”

Mr Hatfield rejected the defense and told the jury they might consider Officer White’s words ‘bugger it’ showed he was ‘fed up, impatient, unwilling to wait any longer’.

Officer White’s interaction with Ms. Nowland lasted less than three minutes, one of which was spent holding a Taser at her before pulling the trigger.

The jury heard that the great-grandmother found it difficult to follow instructions and became unusually aggressive before her death, which a geriatrician attributed to her undiagnosed dementia.

She weighed less than 48kg and relied on her walker to shuffle around the care home, the court was told.

Mrs Nowland is survived by eight children, 24 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren, many of whom were in the public gallery during the trial.