BREAKING NEWS Shock as granny-killer cop learns his fate for Tasering 95-year-old dementia patient at her nursing home
A former constable who fatally shot a 95-year-old grand-grandmother with his Taser will avoid jail after his lawyers argued he made an error of judgement.
A former constable who fatally shot a 95-year-old grand-grandmother with his Taser will avoid jail after his lawyers argued he made an error of judgement.
Kristian White, 35, was placed on a two-year community corrections order during a sentencing hearing in a Sydney court on Friday.
He was found guilty of manslaughter in November after he Tasered Clare Nowland inside the Yallambee Lodge aged-care home in the early hours of May 17, 2023.
Mrs Nowland was holding a knife while using a walking frame and had been ignoring attempts by staff to disarm her.
The 35-year-old officer said nah, bugger it before firing the Tasers barbs at her chest, causing her to fall and strike her head.
The great-grandmother suffered a bleed on the brain and died in hospital a week later.
UNSW criminology expert Helen Gibbon said it was very rare for Australian police officers to face prosecution for killing a person in the line of duty.
It is even rarer for police to be convicted of an offence in relation to a killing, she told AAP.
Former senior constable Kristian White (pictured) is due to be sentenced for the tragic incident in the southern NSW town of Cooma that led to the death of Clare Nowland
The former cop was swarmed by media as he arrived in Sydney on Friday
Mrs Nowland, a great-grandmother, was holding a knife while using a walking frame and had been ignoring attempts by staff to disarm her
Prosecutors have pushed NSW Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison to jail White for the crime, but the ex-officers lawyers have argued he only made an error of judgment and should receive a more lenient sentence.
In deciding to pursue a criminal case against an officer, the Director of Public Prosecutions would already take into account that police worked in difficult, often volatile circumstances, Associate Professor Gibbon noted.
There must also be a willingness on behalf of a prosecuting agency to prosecute a police officer who kills a person in the course of carrying out their duties, as well as a willingness on the part of juries to convict a police officer, she said.
Historically, such willingness has been lacking.
He has launched legal action for a review of that decision.
More to come.
Mrs Nowland is pictured in her Cooma nursing home just moments before she was Tasered