Kristian White (left) was found guilty over the death of Clare Nowland in May 2023. Photo: Gail Eastway.
UPDATE, 3 pm: The family of Clare Nowland said they are “struggling to come to terms” with how her killer hasn’t had to spend any time in jail, after an attempt to appeal his community-based sentence failed.
“While respectful of the court’s decision, the Nowland family is struggling to come to terms with how the NSW legal system can allow an outcome in which a former police officer who was convicted of using deadly force on Clare, a vulnerable and defenceless 95-year old lady, while in her own home, can walk free without having spent a single day in gaol,” the family said in a statement.
“The Nowland family is grateful to the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions and her team for all their work in pursuing justice for Clare.”
WEDNESDAY: An attempt by NSW’s top prosecutor to appeal the community-based sentence handed to the former police officer who was found guilty over the death of Clare Nowland has been dismissed.
Kristian James Samuel White infamously said “Nah, bugger it” before tasering the 95-year-old while she held a knife and had been slowly walking towards him using her walking frame.
The now 35-year-old was found guilty of manslaughter at the end of his NSW Supreme Court trial. He was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order, a community-based sentence.
During his sentencing, Justice Ian Harrison said the former senior constable made “a terrible mistake” and fired a taser when responding to a threat “that never called for such a response”.
The judge found the crime fell towards the lower end of objective seriousness for manslaughter and did not call for a custodial sentence.
Prosecutors launched an appeal, calling the sentence manifestly inadequate.
NSW Director of Public Prosecutions Sally Dowling SC argued Ms Nowland was frail, disorientated, confused, reliant on her walker, incapable of moving quickly and didn’t understand or hear the warnings given to her.
She posed no threat to White or his police officer colleague at the scene, the prosecutor said.
But on Wednesday (30 July), the NSW Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed this appeal.
“The sentence imposed, albeit lenient, was not manifestly inadequate,” the three-judge appeals court wrote in its decision.
“Conviction of the offence of manslaughter did not, in the exceptional circumstances of this case, mandate a custodial sentence.
“The sentencing judge did not err in considering the respondent’s strong subjective circumstances, including both his loss of employment and his inability to continue to reside in his local community.”
Clare Nowland is remembered as a “beacon of love and strength” by her family. Photo: Supplied.
Ms Nowland, who suffered from symptoms consistent with dementia, was carrying two knives while going into other residents’ rooms at Yallambee Lodge in Cooma, NSW, on 17 May 2023, resulting in staff calling Triple Zero for assistance.
CCTV captured her movements around the lodge, as well as the search to find her.
She was eventually found in a small room, holding a steak knife while she used her mobility frame to slowly walk towards police officers, paramedics and staff standing in the corridor outside the room.
She did not drop the knife or stop moving when the officers repeatedly told her to, then was tasered by White while he stood about two metres away from her outside the room’s doorway.
He had the taser pointed at her for one minute before saying, “Nah, bugger it”, and firing.
She fell over, hit her head on the ground and died from her injuries seven days later.
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