Cop who tasered 95-year-old sacked after guilty verdict
Source: NSW Supreme Court
An experienced officer who killed an elderly woman by tasering her in an aged-care home has been sacked from the force nearly a week after his guilty verdict.
Senior Constable Kristian James Samuel White fatally discharged his Taser at 95-year-old Clare Nowland in a treatment room at Yallambee Lodge in the southern NSW town of Cooma early on May 17, 2023.
A jury unanimously found White guilty of manslaughter last Wednesday, with Crown prosecutors making an unsuccessful bid to place him behind bars a day later.
On Tuesday, the 34-year-old was removed from the NSW Police Force on Commissioner Karen Webb.
“I have determined that I do not have confidence in the officer’s suitability to continue as a police officer,” she said, adding that White had been advised of the move through his lawyers.
Webb said she had also spoken with Nowland’s family to notify them of the decision.
Despite the guilty verdict, White will remain on bail until at least February, when he will be sentenced.
Police and paramedics were called to Nowland’s nursing home after the great-grandmother grabbed two steak knives from a kitchen and brandished them at residents and staff before throwing one at a carer.
White pulled the Taser’s trigger after three minutes of negotiations to get her to put down the remaining knife.
He was heard in video footage played at his trial saying “nah, bugger it” before shooting Nowland in the torso.
She hit her head on the floor as she fell and died at Cooma Hospital a week later.
White had been suspended from duties with pay during his trial. He was removed from the payroll a day after his guilty verdict.
The case has been listed for a sentence hearing on February 7.
-AAP