Kristian White (left) was found guilty over the death of Clare Nowland in May 2023. Photo: Gail Eastway.
Prosecutors will appeal the sentence handed to former police officer Kristian James Samuel White last week, who was spared jail over the death of 95-year-old Clare Nowland.
White was found guilty of manslaughter at the end of his NSW Supreme Court trial.
Then, in March, he was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order, which is a community-based sentence, along with 425 hours of community service.
This week, prosecutors flagged their intention to appeal his sentence.
“After careful consideration of the judgment, the director has determined to file an appeal against the inadequacy of the sentence imposed in this matter,” a spokesperson for the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said.
Ms Nowland, who suffered from symptoms consistent with dementia, was carrying two knives while going into other residents’ rooms at Yallambee Lodge in Cooma, NSW, on 17 May 2023, resulting in staff calling Triple Zero for assistance.
CCTV captured her movements around the lodge, as well as the search to find her.
Clare Nowland is remembered as a “beacon of love and strength” by her family. Photo: Nowland Family.
She was eventually found in a small room, holding a steak knife while she used her mobility frame to slowly walk towards police officers, paramedics and staff standing in the corridor outside the room.
She did not drop the knife or stop moving when the officers repeatedly told her to, then was tasered by White while he stood about two metres away from her outside the room’s doorway.
He had the taser pointed at her for one minute before saying, “Nah, bugger it”, and firing.
She fell over, hit her head on the ground and died from her injuries seven days later.
When White was sentenced, Justice Ian Harrison said the former senior constable completely and inexplicably misread and misunderstood the dynamics of the situation that night.
He said White made “a terrible mistake” and fired a taser at Ms Nowland when responding to a threat “that never called for such a response”.
But Justice Harrison also found the crime fell towards the lower end of objective seriousness for manslaughter and did not call for a custodial sentence.
White had been suspended from duty with pay in late May 2023 and was dismissed from the police force in December 2024, but then launched a review of this decision.
Original Article published by Albert McKnight on Riotact.
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