Kristian White: Police officer offered 'malleable' defence for tasering great-gran Clare Nowland

A police officer who tasered an elderly woman offered “malleable” explanations about what happened in the lead-up to the deadly incident and spurred him to act, a jury has heard.

Dramatic footage of the incident taken from the nursing home’s CCTV and police bodyworn cameras has been shown at a NSW Supreme Court manslaughter trial for Senior Constable Kristian White.

In the clips, the 34-year-old officer was heard saying “nah, bugger it” before shooting 95-year-old Clare Nowland in the torso with the electrical barbs.

“What the accused said before he fired the Taser was completely inconsistent with it being to prevent an imminent violent confrontation,” crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC told the jury on Tuesday during closing submissions.

“’Nah, bugger it’. You might understand that to mean he was fed up, impatient, not prepared to wait any longer.”

White discharged his stun gun at Mrs 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.

The great-grandmother, who had symptoms of dementia and was holding a steak knife at the time, fell backwards and hit her head before dying a week later in hospital.

White argued he was justified in firing the weapon despite only one minute passing after he encountered her in the treatment room.

He claimed he needed to protect others in the area from injury.

But no reasonable person would have thought a violent confrontation was imminent because of Mrs Nowland’s speed as it took her one minute to slowly shuffle forward a metre before she was tasered, Mr Hatfield said.

She was also two or three metres away from White, his police partner, two paramedics and a registered nurse.

“Who could she have injured at that moment? No one,” Mr Hatfield said.

The prosecutor targeted White’s credibility, saying he refused to answer straightforward questions about whether Mrs Nowland looked frail or moved slowly.

The officer also made a “complete about-face” when asked about the precise point in time he was prepared to fire the weapon and whether he thought the aged-care resident was going to act with superhuman strength, the jury heard.

“His answers were malleable and changing even within a few questions,” Mr Hatfield said.

Claims by White’s partner, acting Sergeant Jessica Pank, and paramedic Anna Hofner that Mrs Nowland posed a threat did not match video footage showing the elderly woman stationary inside the treatment room when she was tasered, he argued.

White’s police report that claimed the 95-year-old was waving the blade around and was holding a boning knife did not match video or documentary evidence, the jury heard.

The officer has been accused of manslaughter through criminal negligence by breaching the duty of care owed to Mrs Nowland, and by committing an unlawful and dangerous act.

Jurors will have to consider whether the use of force was reasonable or not.

They will not have to determine whether the tasering was a breach of police policies or procedures.

“You might think in this case that it plainly was but that’s not the issue here,” Mr Hatfield said.

The trial continues.