Relatives broke down in tears as they watched footage of the moment a great-grandmother was killed with a Taser at a rural nursing home.
Police constable Kristian James Samuel White discharged his Taser at Clare Nowland at the Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma on May 17, causing her to fall backwards and suffer life-threatening injuries, the court was told .
The 34-year-old has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and is fighting the charge during a weeks-long trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court.
On Tuesday, jurors were shown body camera footage worn by Officer White and his colleague when they arrived at the nursing home just before 5 a.m.
The images showed Mrs Nowland dressed in pink pajamas and sitting at a desk in a room clutching a knife and her four-wheeled walker.
Officer White, his colleague and two paramedics gathered at the door and urged the great-grandmother to remain seated and put down the knife.
In the footage, Mrs Nowland struggles to stand with the help of her walker and raises the knife when someone approaches her.
“We’re not playing this game, Clare, stop that,” Agent White tells her as he raises the Taser and points it at her in view of his body camera.
Clare Nowland (pictured) died in May 2023 after she was shot with a Taser in a nursing home, fell backwards and hit her head.
-Clare, stop now. Do you see this? This is a Taser.’
The footage then shows Officer White activating the Taser warning system, which releases a loud noise and pulsating light towards Ms Nowland.
“If you keep coming, they’re going to shoot you,” he told him.
He repeatedly asks her to stop as the nonagenarian continues to walk slowly toward the door with both hands on her walker.
“Stop, just… No, fuck,” the police officer said before firing his Taser into his chest.
‘I’ve got it… grab it.’
The 95-year-old woman staggered and fell forward before staggering backwards and crashing to the ground.
The court learned that he suffered serious injuries that caused his death days later.
Gasps could be heard throughout the courtroom as the great-grandmother fell to the floor in the graphic images and several members of Mrs Nowland’s family wiped away tears.
Footage captured on Officer White’s body camera showed Ms Nowland clutching her head as she lay on the ground, barely moving.
Both officers ran forward as Mrs. Nowland lay on the ground, while Officer White kept an arm on the woman’s shoulder.
“I didn’t expect it to be like this,” his colleague said as they stood next to the old woman.
“I was thinking I could grab it, but it was too sharp and pointed at me.”
Clare Nowland’s family (pictured) filled the public gallery on the second day of the trial.
The standoff lasted three minutes and is the crucial element of the trial, Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC told the court on Monday.
The Crown alleges that Constable White’s conduct amounted to manslaughter because he breached his duty of care and exposed Ms Nowland to serious risk.
Hatfield said he expected evidence to be presented about a conversation Officer White allegedly had with a colleague after the incident.
“I’ve taken a look and we’re not supposed to Taser seniors, but under these circumstances I needed it,” the officer reportedly said.
Constable White’s barrister, Troy Edwards SC, argued his client acted in accordance with his duties as a police officer to “stop the threat and counter the risk” Ms Nowland posed to herself and others while holding a knife.
He said the police officer wrote in an incident report the day that he deployed his police-issued Taser because he felt “a violent confrontation was imminent.”
Two steak knives and a pen lamp were seized at the nursing home (pictured)
Holes were discovered in the pajamas Mrs Nowland was wearing when she was Tasered (pictured)
The court was told the 34-year-old man had been informed of a previous violent incident involving Mrs Nowland when he responded to the call on May 17.
In the two hours before the fatal incident, the court was told the great-grandmother had been wandering around the nursing home holding two knives.
Hatfield read two statements from residents of Yallambee Lodge, whose rooms Mrs Nowland had entered hours before she was Tasered to death.
A 90-year-old man said she had been holding two knives when he entered her room, but “did not threaten me or raise them at me” before she was led out of the room.
Mrs Nowland then entered the room of an 84-year-old man and had an hours-long confrontation with carers during which she waved knives in the air.
He threw one of the knives at a staff member, but it landed on the floor.
The incident prompted a nurse to call triple-0, which sent an ambulance and notified police due to the involvement of a knife.
Agent White received support from his wife in court (pictured)
Mrs Nowland was suffering from symptoms of dementia but had not been formally diagnosed, the jury was told.
Forensic pathologist Sairita Maistry performed an autopsy on Mrs Nowland and concluded she had died from blunt force trauma to the head.
The 95-year-old woman was 154 cm tall and weighed only 47.5 kg when her body was examined.
The trial came to a sudden halt around lunchtime Tuesday when a juror fainted in the jury box and fell forward with a thud.
He was treated by court bailiffs and an ambulance was called.
However, the jury appeared to be well enough to continue and the trial resumed on Tuesday afternoon.
