NSW police minister, commissioner deny Clare Nowland taser death ‘cover up’
Claims key details regarding the tasering of grandmother Clare Nowland were covered-up have been rejected, despite the facts not being exposed until they were reported by The Daily Telegraph.
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Claims key details regarding the tasering of grandmother Clare Nowland were covered-up have been rejected by the Police Minister and commissioner, despite the facts not being exposed until they were reported by The Daily Telegraph.
It comes after freedom of information documents revealed on Wednesday that key details – including the mention of a knife, a taser and Clare Nowland’s movements – were removed from the first public statement following the May 17 incident.
Details of Ms Nowland being tasered weren’t made public until The Telegraph revealed them on May 18.
Those details were initially included in a 171-word draft press release, prepared by the NSW Police Media Unit, about how officers responded at 4.15am on May 17 to reports that an aged care resident had a knife.
The initial press statement was revealed in freedom of information documents obtained by Australian Associated Press.
The mother-of-eight, who had dementia, died in Cooma Hospital in southern NSW on May 24, a week after she was tasered at her Yallambee Lodge aged care home.
Senior Constable Kristian White was charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and common assault over the incident.
The 33-year-old will face Cooma Local Court on July 5. He remains suspended on full pay.
The release of the documents caused a firestorm in NSW Parliament on Wednesday, with Police Minister Yasmin Catley saying she first learnt about the draft press release through media reports.
“The Commissioner for Police was very upfront about the process that the department of police had taken,” she said.
Reading from a statement provided by police, Ms Catley said the top priority “was to ensure family members learned details of the incident directly from police rather than a third party, and to ensure the integrity of the investigation”.
Opposition leader Mark Speakman took aim at the minister saying she’d been “caught by surprise” by the released documents.
“I think the Premier needs to give consideration to removing the Police Minister, she‘s clearly not up to the job,” he said.
“The Police Minister was not involved in the initial censoring. But it‘s extraordinary the Police Minister discovers this issue when it’s reported in the press today and we asked about it in question time. A Police Minister should be across that brief.”
A spokesman for Ms Catley said “It is routine for a draft statement to be prepared and then reviewed by senior staff” and that details of critical incidents “are not released until police have completed their direct communications with family members of those involved”.
Police Commissioner Karen Webb told 2GB Wednesday afternoon that “there is certainly no cover up here”.
“This matter will go to the coroner, this matter will also go to the criminal court. There will be many and varied ways that the evidence of what happened will be played out.”
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