By Sarah McPhee
Warning: Graphic content
Family members of great-grandmother Clare Nowland gasped as a court was shown video of the moment the 95-year-old was Tasered by a police officer, having been repeatedly told to drop a knife and warned “you keep coming, you’re going to get Tased”.
Senior Constable Kristian James Samuel White has pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Nowland, who was Tasered while standing with her walking frame inside the Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma on May 17, 2023. Nowland died in hospital seven days later.
Kristian James Samuel White (left) is on trial after pleading not guilty to the manslaughter of Clare Nowland.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer
The defence argues White had a duty as a police officer to protect people from injury and prevent a breach of the peace, and that his response was not disproportionate to the risk posed.
Day two of the 34-year-old’s trial in the NSW Supreme Court came to a temporary halt on Tuesday afternoon as a juror appeared to faint and medical attention was sought, before the case resumed.
Earlier, the jury viewed CCTV from inside the facility as well as police body-worn video from White and his colleague who had been called to assist ambulance staff.
Clare Nowland died in hospital in May last year.Credit: Facebook
In the vision, Nowland is seen moving with her walking frame from the kitchen of the house she lived in and into a treatment room within the administration building.
The video shows paramedics and police peering inside the room, where Nowland is seated, holding a knife. A number of voices are heard asking her to “stay sitting” and put the knife on the table, but Nowland begins moving with her walker towards the door.
The body-worn vision shows White holding up his Taser and saying “we’re not wielding knives” and telling Nowland they were “not playing this game” and to put the knife down.
“Stop now, see this? This is a Taser – drop it now,” White said. “This is your first warning.”
A Taser warning sounded, and other voices were heard to say “that scared you, Clare” and “we’re going to help you”.
White said: “You keep coming, you’re going to get Tased.”
Nowland could be seen standing near the doorway, illuminated by the torchlight on the Taser.
“Stop … nah, bugger it,” White said, and discharged his weapon. Nowland fell backwards onto the floor and was attended to by emergency services.
A woman was heard to say she had thought she could grab the knife, but “it was a bit too sharp and pointed at me”.
Forensic pathologist Dr Sairita Maistry, who performed the autopsy, gave evidence Nowland weighed 47.5 kilograms and was 1.54 metres tall, noting people can be shorter or heavier after death.
Maistry said Nowland had “multiple types of blunt force trauma”, a bruise to her right breast, and a “crusted wound” to her right anterior abdominal wall which was “likely the Taser probe impact site”.
Photographs taken during the police investigation and tendered during the trial show Nowland’s pink, purple and yellow pyjamas, including small holes left in the fabric.
Further images show the interior and exterior of the nursing home, including a door in house three, featuring a cartoon and a butterfly and bearing Nowland’s name.
The court heard that about 3am, Nowland, using her walker, obtained two steak knives and a jug of prunes from the kitchen before wheeling herself into the rooms of three different residents.
In a triple-zero call at 4.08am, which was also tendered as evidence, a nurse told the operator a “very aggressive resident” was going into rooms with “two little knives that she’s picked up from the kitchen drawer” and “raising them against the staff”.
The nurse said one of the other residents was “in his bed and he’s awake because of her”.
Prosecutors say Nowland attempted to throw one of the knives at a nurse, but it fell to the ground.
One of Nowland’s eight children, daughter Lesley Lloyd, gave evidence on Monday that she was contacted about her mother’s behaviour and had offered to come to the nursing home.
The court heard she was later called and told Nowland “had a bad fall”, was unconscious and unresponsive. Lloyd said she went to Cooma Hospital, where her mother was in the emergency department.
“She was semi-conscious, she said my name,” Lloyd said. “I told her where she was, that she’s in the hospital.”
She was told her mother would not survive and said the family maintained a vigil at the hospital until Nowland died on May 24, 2023.
The court heard that while Nowland was still alive, Lloyd was asked by police for the pyjamas her mother had been wearing when she was Tasered by White.
She said she removed them from her mother and noticed two marks on Nowland’s torso.
The Crown alleges White was criminally negligent or committed an unlawful and dangerous act.
The trial continues before Justice Ian Harrison.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.