SYDNEY – A police officer who shocked a 95-year-old nursing home resident with a Taser was found guilty of manslaughter in an Australian court Wednesday.
A jury found Kristian James Samuel White guilty in the trial in Sydney after 20 hours of deliberation. White, who is on bail, could get up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced later.
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Clare Nowland, a great-grandmother who had dementia and used a walker, was refusing to put down the steak knife she was holding when the officer discharged his Taser at her in May 2023. Nowland fell backward after White shocked her and died a week later in hospital.
Police said at the time that Nowland sustained her fatal injuries from striking her head on the floor, rather than directly from the device’s debilitating electric shock.
White's employment is under review and is subject to legal processes, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb told reporters after the verdict.
“The court has found Claire Nowland died as a result of the actions of a police officer. This should never have happened,” Webb said, as she offered her “deepest condolences” to Nowland's family. The state's police reviewed its Taser policy and training in January and no changes to it were made, she added.
In video footage played during the New South Wales Supreme Court trial, White was heard saying “nah, bugger it” before discharging his weapon, after the officers told Nowland 21 times to put the knife down. White, 34, told the jury he had been taught that any person wielding a knife was dangerous, the Guardian reported.
But after an eight-day trial, the jury rejected arguments by White's lawyers that his use of the Taser was a proportionate response to the threat posed by Nowland, who weighed about 100 pounds (45 kilograms).
The prosecutor argued that White's use of the Taser was was “utterly unnecessary and obviously excessive," local news outlets said.
The extraordinary case provoked debate about how officers in the state use Tasers, a device that incapacitates using electricity.
Nowland, a resident of Yallambee Lodge, a nursing home in the town of Cooma, was survived by eight children, 24 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported.