Police officer faces Supreme Court trial over death of 95-year-old Clare Nowland

Defence lawyers are arguing Kristian James Samuel White was exercising the duty he had as a police officer when he fired a taser at 95-year-old Clare Nowland, causing her death.

The 34-year-old pleaded not guilty to a charge of manslaughter when his jury trial began in the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney on Monday (11 November).

Jurors heard Ms Nowland was holding a knife and using a walking frame in Yallambee Lodge in Cooma, NSW, on 17 May, 2023, when he tasered her. She fell over, hit her head on the ground and died from her injuries seven days later.

Earlier that morning, she had been going into the rooms of several nursing home residents while carrying two knives.

Staff tried to persuade her to drop the knives, without success, although she eventually tried to throw one of them towards a carer, but missed.

A nurse called triple zero to ask for help with what they said was a “very aggressive resident” who was raising a knife at staff. As a knife was involved, the operator also told police to attend.

Mr White, another police officer and paramedics arrived to find Ms Nowland in an office at the facility around 5 am.

The following two- to three-minute incident was captured on body-worn camera footage and security cameras, which was to be played to jurors.

But after Ms Nowland refused to drop the knife, Mr White said, “Bugger it”, and fired his taser at her, causing her to fall over.

At the time, he had been a serving police officer for 12 years and was stationed in Cooma.

“I’ve had a look and supposedly we aren’t meant to tase elderly people,” he allegedly told another police officer after the incident.

“In the circumstances I needed to. Maybe this will be my first critical incident.”

During the lawyers’ opening submissions, defence barrister Troy Edwards SC said it was his client’s sworn duty as a police officer to stop the threat and counter the risk Ms Nowland posed to herself and others due to her possession of the knife.

“As a violent confrontation was imminent, and to prevent injuries to police, the taser was discharged,” Mr White wrote on the same day as the incident.

Mr Edwards argued jurors couldn’t be satisfied his client’s actions were illegal because he was acting under his lawful obligation as a police officer when he discharged his taser.

Ms Nowland had been suffering from symptoms consistent with dementia, even though she didn’t have a formal diagnosis when she died.

Mr Edwards said jurors would hear about her “increasing aggression” before the tasering.

He said she hit and kicked a nurse at the lodge on 14 March, 2023, then tried to ram a carer with her mobility walker on 26 April before being taken to hospital. While at hospital, she punched and tried to bite hospital staff, and rammed her walker into a nurse.

Mr Edwards said his client was told about the hospital incident before the tasering.

The prosecutor, Brett Hatfield SC, said he didn’t expect the defence would dispute that the tasering was a substantial cause of her death.

But he alleged the tasering breached the duty of care Mr White owed Ms Nowland, as it fell so far short of the standard of care a reasonable person would have expected in the circumstances and involved a high risk of death.

She was reliant on a mobility walker and her movement was limited to a slow pace, he said.

Mr Hatfield also alleged the tasering was not justified or authorised by law.

Lesley Lloyd was the first person to testify and said she was one of Ms Nowland’s eight children.

Ms Lloyd said Yallambee Lodge staff called her at 6 am on 17 May, 2023, and said her mother had had a bad fall and was unresponsive.

She went to Cooma Hospital to find her mother in a semi-conscious state. Ms Nowland said Ms Lloyd’s name and she told her mother that she was in hospital.

A doctor told Ms Lloyd her mother had a brain bleed and wouldn’t survive. Ms Lloyd said it was not until later that she was told she had been tasered by a police officer.

The jury trial is expected to run for about two to three weeks before Justice Ian Harrison.