By Sarah McPhee
The police officer who Tasered 95-year-old Clare Nowland as she held a knife in a NSW nursing home has told his trial he believed the great-grandmother intended to strike out and his actions were “justified”, but he is “devastated” that she later died.
Senior Constable Kristian James Samuel White has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Nowland, whom he Tasered as she stood with her walking frame inside the Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma on May 17, 2023. Nowland suffered head injuries and died a week later.
Kristian White outside the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney during his manslaughter trial.Credit: Kate Geraghty
White, 34, gave evidence on Monday at the second week of his trial in the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney.
White, his colleague – then acting sergeant Jessica Pank – and two paramedics responded to a triple-zero call from a nurse reporting a “very aggressive resident” raising “two little knives” at staff.
White said, on arrival, he asked if the behaviour had happened before, and was told that about a week prior, Nowland “had been sedated and taken to hospital for aggressive and violent behaviour”. He claimed he was also told Nowland had “watched a scary movie on TV” and been “unsettled”.
After a search of the grounds, Nowland was found sitting in an administrative room with her walker, holding a knife.
White said Nowland appeared in a delirium and “seemed to look through us” as she held a 15-centimetre knife with a “sharp tip”.
Clare Nowland died in hospital a week after being Tasered.Credit:
He said Nowland’s movement of the knife indicated “she was definitely willing to use the knife if anyone got near her”.
The jury has viewed body-worn police footage, which captured White and others repeatedly asking Nowland to drop the knife, before White said, “Stop … nah, bugger it” and discharged his weapon, followed by “got her”.
White said he was “weighing up the danger that was increasing at the time” as communication and use of the Taser’s warning arc had failed, and the “incident had been going on for several hours”.
“Obviously, it was not going to be resolved, to me, without a use of force,” he said.
White’s barrister, Troy Edwards, SC, asked: “Why did you discharge your Taser?”
“I believe that she [Nowland] was posing a risk to not only myself but also Sergeant Pank,” he replied. “She was walking out, she’s raised a knife at us, her intent was quite clear to us that she was going to use the knife on us.”
White said he did not think a serious injury would result from the use of the Taser.
Edwards asked: “Did you consider that it might result in her dying?”
“No,” White replied.
Asked how he felt “about the fact that it did”, White said: “I’m upset and devastated by it. I never intended for her to be injured by it at all.”
“My hope was that it would go as I’ve seen it happen before … she’d be incapacitated.”
Senior Constable Jessica Pank leaves the NSW Supreme Court after giving evidence last week.Credit: Edwina Pickles
White said he and Pank had written up reports back at the police station, that Pank “mentioned something about the Tasering or not Tasering of elderly people”, and they looked up the police procedures including criteria and circumstances.
“We sat there and discussed ‘well, yes, she was elderly.’ We accepted that,” he said.
“My thoughts ... well, she was armed with a knife and walking towards us with an intent, it appeared that she was going to strike out [at] us with the knife.
“I thought that would have met the test. I think I said to Sergeant Pank ‘to me, it looks justified’.”
Asked under cross-examination whether Nowland looked frail, White said Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, was asking “the proverbial piece of string question”. He said Nowland was “not the frailest I’ve seen” and “looked quite well for someone at 95 years of age”.
He disagreed with the prosecutor’s suggestions that Nowland was “obviously a frail old lady” and there was a “clear risk if she fell … she’d be seriously injured”.
White said he hoped Nowland would “fall onto her walker … because she was hunched over”.
White, who graduated from the police academy in 2011, said he had previously discharged his Taser twice before, resulting in the “faintest of injuries”. He said he was taught “you don’t underestimate anyone carrying a knife, at all”.
A colleague previously gave evidence White told him after the incident: “I’ve had a look, and supposedly we aren’t meant to Tase elderly people, but in the circumstances, I needed to. Maybe this will be my first critical incident.”
On Monday, White accepted the conversation occurred, but thought he had said “I had to” rather than “needed to”.
The defence argues White acted within his duty as a police officer. The Crown alleges White was criminally negligent or committed an unlawful and dangerous act.
The parties will give closing addresses on Tuesday.
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