Scoop of the Year: Mark Morri and Josh Hanrahan win Walkley Award

The Daily Telegraph’s crime team has won the Walkley Awards’ Scoop of the Year for their article exposing the police tasering of 95-year-old great-grandmother Clare Nowland.

The Daily Telegraph’s outstanding journalism was recognised at Thursday night’s prestigious Walkley Awards, taking out a major honour for the Scoop of the Year.

The Telegraph’s award-winning crime team of Mark Morri and Josh Hanrahan received the award for their exclusive article exposing the police tasering of 95-year-old great-grandmother Clare Nowland.

Mrs Nowland, who suffered from dementia, was tasered by Senior Constable Kristian White in her Cooma nursing home as she approached police holding a knife in the early hours of May 17.

She died in hospital on May 24.

White has been charged with causing grievous bodily harm and Mrs Nowland’s family is suing police. The incident also prompted criticism of police for not revealing the presence of the taser for 36 hours.

The Daily Telegraph journalists Josh Hanrahan (left) and Mark Morri. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Clare Nowland, the 95-year-old dementia patient who died after being tasered by police.

“The tasering of Clare ­Nowland has been one of the biggest stories of the year and it’s this kind of story that readers of The Daily Telegraph get to regularly read first,” Hanrahan said.

“It was the epitome of a scoop, telling the community something that had been kept hidden by NSW Police and which led to months of media coverage across the country.

“It’s an incredible honour to win a Walkley, but it would never have been possible without all our colleagues and the amazing team of editors we get to work with every day, led of course by Ben English.”

The Daily Telegraph cartoonist and feature writer Warren Brown was also a finalist in this year’s awards for the Cartoon of the Year category.

The gala awards dinner was held at the ICC in Sydney last night.