Taser cop breaks his silence after avoiding jail for Christmas

The police officer found guilty — but spared jail for now — over the taser death of a 95-year-old great-grandmother Clare Nowland says he never intended for her to be harmed.

The police officer found guilty — but spared jail for now — over the death of a great-grandmother says he never intended for the elderly woman to be harmed.

Senior Constable Kristian White, 34, will remain on bail until at least February next year when he is due to be sentenced over the manslaughter of Clare Nowland, 95, at a Cooma nursing home.

In a coup for the officer’s defence team, NSW Supreme Court judge Justice Ian Harrison rejected a detention application, and allowed Constable White to remain on bail until he is sentenced.

Constable White hugged and kissed his partner Hannah inside the courtroom on Friday morning, before the couple left the building and returned to their home in Cooma.

Constable White’s lawyer Warwick Anderson issued a statement on the officer’s behalf saying he has been deeply troubled by the events of that early morning on May 17 last year when he fired a taser at Mrs Nowland, which ultimately killed her.

Police officer Kristian White leaves the Supreme Court on Wednesday after being found guilty of the manslaughter of 95-year-old great-grandmother Clare Nowland. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short

“Mr White extends his thoughts and prayers to the Nowland family. Since that fateful morning, Kristian has tried to deal with the legal case against him, while confronting the pain that discharging his Taser ultimately resulted in Mrs Nowland’s death,” Mr Anderson said.

“He has never lost sight of the fact that Mrs Nowland passed away and he is acutely aware that the Nowland family is deeply hurt by what happened.”

“Mr White gave sworn evidence before the Supreme Court in his trial, that he never intended for Mrs Nowland to be harmed or injured — and that he was, and remains, entirely devastated for the Nowland family’s loss,” he said.

In allowing Constable White to remain on bail, Justice Harrison told the court he was not in a position to make a decision on White’s ultimate liberty, but that a jail sentence was not “inevitable”.

“I should not want to give unwarranted hope to Mr White that he will avoid a sentence of full-time imprisonment or to cause distress or frustration to those whose reasonably available and strongly held view is that nothing less than such a result would be appropriate,” Justice Harrison said.

He said Mrs Nowland’s death was a result of Constable White an “error in Judgement with fatal consequences”.

Clare Nowland with her granddaughter, Kylie Paske. Picture: Facebook

“Mr White did not act out of anger, or malice, or revenge, or retribution, or envy, or jealousy, or avarice, or greed, or some misplaced desire to inflict harm or to avoid detection for some crime,” Justice Harrison said.

Constable White was called to Yallambee Lodge at 5am when a staff member said Mrs Nowland was acting aggressively and armed with a knife. Constable White gave the elderly woman several opportunities to drop the objects, before he said “bugger it” and fired his taser at her chest.

Mrs Nowland’s family issued a statement through their lawyer saying they were “disappointed that the court has today refused to place Kristian White into detention after the jury found him guilty of Clare’s manslaughter earlier this week”.

“The family is struggling to understand why the court felt it was appropriate to leave Mr White on bail and free in the Cooma community without any real restrictions in light of that conviction,” they said.

Constable White will return to court on February 7 for sentencing submissions.