Kristian White granted bail ahead of sentencing over taser death of 95yo

A police officer found guilty of the manslaughter of a 95-year-old woman with a taser inside a nursing home has been granted bail while he awaits sentencing. Senior Constable Kristian White, 34, faced an eight-day trial in the NSW Supreme Court in November after he pleaded not guilty to unlawfully killing Clare Nowland, 95. He had been called to Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma before 5am on May 17, 2023 to assist with a “very aggressive” resident who was holding two knives. During his deadly three-minute interaction with Mrs Nowland, White raised his Taser and told her to stay seated and put down the knife she held while leaning on her walking frame. The jury was told the great-grandmother had difficulty following directions and had become uncharacteristically aggressive before her death, which a doctor attributed to undiagnosed dementia. White held the weapon pointed at Mrs Nowland for a minute before he said: “Nah, just bugger it” and pulled the trigger, discharging the Taser probes at her chest. Mrs Nowland, who weighed less than 48 kgs, fell backwards and struck her head on the floor. She succumbed to her injuries a week later. After four days of deliberation, the jury unanimously found White guilty of manslaughter on Wednesday. Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC made an immediate application to have White taken into custody ahead of sentencing, which was heard on Thursday. “Clearly the jury has found on any view that the force was not reasonably necessary and, having regard to the nature of the offence, that a full time custodial sentence is realistically inevitable,” he said. Yet White’s barrister Troy Edwards SC argued the judge could find his client’s actions were on the “lowest end” of the spectrum of severity for manslaughter offences. “A sentence of full time imprisonment is not a certainty as a consequence of the nature of the type of charge,” he said. Justice Ian Harrison handed down his decision on Friday at the NSW Supreme Court, with White allowed to walk free while awaiting sentencing. Mr Harrison said the Crown maintains White “is a person who will be sentenced to imprisonment to be served by full-time detention and that he has not established that special or exceptional circumstances exist that would justify a decision to grant bail”. “Mr White maintains that the imposition of a sentence of imprisonment to be served by full-time custody is not inevitable but says in any event that I could not be satisfied that adequate and realistic details of the anticipated custodial conditions to which he is likely to be exposed between now and when he is sentenced, having regard to his occupation as a sworn member of the NSW Police Service, have yet emerged. “I acknowledge in that last respect my concern that there is a need in the present case for Mr White’s particular circumstances properly and reliably to be assessed, having regard to what is known about the risk of victimisation of, and gratuitous violence directed to, convicted police officers by other inmates in so-called correctional facilities. The existence of that risk is not controversial.” However Justice Harrison ordered White to remain in Australia and not contact Ms Nowland’s family. “I continue Mr White’s bail until further order on condition that he is of good behaviour, does not travel overseas and does not approach or communicate in any way with any member of the family of Clare Nowland,” he said. White is set to front court again on February 7 next year when sentencing submissions begin. He has not spent any time behind bars on remand since being charged over the fatal incident. The maximum penalty for manslaughter in NSW is 25 years imprisonment. White was suspended with pay throughout the proceedings but his pay was revoked on Thursday. NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb is considering whether to remove him from the NSW Police Force. Justice Harrison earlier told the court that the case was “different” to any other case he’d dealt with in the past 18 years. Justice Harrison explained most cases he saw involved the commission of offences associated with “some form of intent” which “is nearly always coupled with one or other of emotions such as greed or punishment or revenge or passion”. “In this case, and speaking intentionally neutrally, this offence was committed in the context of a failure to advert on one view the realities of what were presented,” he said. “They weren’t associated with an intent to cause harm or serious injury, even though that was the outcome and that was what fuelled in legal terms the commission of the offence.”