The fate of a New South Wales senior constable who fatally tasered a 95-year-old woman with symptoms of dementia will soon be in the hands of 12 jurors as they consider whether he is guilty of manslaughter.
Kristian White discharged his stun gun at Clare Nowland in a treatment room at Yallambee Lodge aged-care home in the southern NSW town of Cooma during the early hours of May 17, 2023.
In video footage played at his NSW Supreme Court trial, the 34-year-old officer was heard saying “nah, bugger it” before shooting the great-grandmother in the torso.
Nowland, who was holding a steak knife at the time, fell backwards and hit her head before dying a week later in hospital.
Justice Ian Harrison is set to give his closing remarks to the jury today before it retires to consider its verdict.
Crown prosecutors argue that White was either criminally negligent or performed an unlawful and dangerous act which caused Nowland’s death.
Yesterday, prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC called the officer’s conduct “utterly unnecessary and obviously dangerous”.
“I ask you to hold him responsible for his conduct with a verdict of guilty,” he told the jury.
However, his defence team has claimed that shooting the 95-year-old was a proportionate response to the danger that she posed.
Barrister Troy Edwards SC disputed prosecution arguments that Nowland only posed a “very limited” threat.
“You might think that the people there didn’t think so,” he said.
It was White’s job to disarm Nowland and he did not have the option to just turn on his heels and walk away, he said.
