‘Inevitable’: Big call on jail for Taser cop
It is “realistically inevitable” that a police officer will be jailed over the manslaughter of a 95-year-old woman with the service Taser in a nursing home, a Crown prosecutor has told a court.
Senior Constable Kristian White, 34, faced an eight-day trial in the NSW Supreme Court this month after pleading not guilty to the manslaughter of Clare Nowland, 95.
He had been called to Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma before 5am on May 17, 2023 to respond to a triple-0 call for assistance with a “very aggressive” resident holding two knives.
Footage of the deadly confrontation shows White raising his service Taser at Mrs Nowland while warning her to put down the remaining knife and stay seated.
The jury was told the great-grandmother had difficulty following directions and had become uncharacteristically aggressive before her death, which a doctor attributed to undiagnosed dementia.
White held the weapon pointed at Mrs Nowland for a minute before he said: “Nah, just bugger it” and pulled the trigger.
Mrs Nowland, who weighed less than 43kg and relied on a walking frame, fell backwards and struck her head on the floor. She sustained serious injuries and died in hospital a week later.
After four days of deliberation, the jury of four women and eight men returned a unanimous verdict of guilty on Wednesday.
Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC made an application for White’s bail to be revoked ahead of sentencing.
“Clearly the jury has found on any view that the force was not reasonably necessary and having regard to the nature of the offence, that a full time custodial sentence is realistically inevitable,” he said.
However, White’s barrister Troy Edwards SC argued “inevitability” was a “high bar” which was not met in this case.
“A sentence of full time imprisonment is not a certainty as a consequence of the nature of the type of charge,” he argued.
The court was told the Crown does not consider White to be a flight risk.
Justice Ian Harrison told the court White’s matter was “different to any I’ve had to deal with in the past 18 years.”
He said most cases he saw involved the commission of offences associated with “some form of intent” which “is nearly always coupled with one or other of emotions such as greed or punishment or revenge or passion”.
“In this case, and speaking intentionally neutrally, this offence was committed in the context of a failure to advert on one view the realities of what were presented,” Justice Harrison said.
“They weren’t associated with an intent to cause harm or serious injury, even though that was the outcome and that was what fuelled in legal terms the commission of the offence.”
He adjourned his decision on the detention application to Friday.
If the Crown prosecutor is successful in arguing his case, White could be taken into custody for the first time.
He has not spent any time behind bars on remand since being charged over the fatal incident.
Earlier on Thursday, NSW Police confirmed White has been suspended from the force without pay.
He had previously been suspended with pay throughout the proceedings.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb is expected to consider whether to remove White from the police force following a loss of confidence in his ability.
White will be sentenced for manslaughter next year. The maximum penalty for manslaughter in NSW is 25 years imprisonment.
He did not comment as he walked out of the courthouse.