CNN — A former police officer who fatally Tasered a 95-year-old Australian woman after she refused his orders to drop a knife has been spared jail, with the victim’s family decrying the sentence as a “slap on the wrist.”
Kristian White was found guilty of manslaughter after shocking Clare Nowland with the Taser while on police duty in the early hours of May 17, 2023, in a case that sparked public outcry.
Last November, a jury rejected his claim that Nowland posed a threat and found the former senior constable guilty of breaching his duty of care by deploying his weapon against the elderly woman, who later died of her injuries.
Sentencing White on Friday, New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison said the former officer’s actions were “a terrible mistake,” but that his crime fell at the lower end of objective seriousness.
Police were called to Nowland’s nursing home in Cooma – about 70 miles south of the capital Canberra – after the great-grandmother, who was showing signs of dementia, refused repeated requests by staff to surrender knives she was holding and return to her room.
After responding to the call-out, White spent about three minutes trying to convince Nowland to put down a steak knife, before saying, “Nah, bugger it,” and deploying his Taser.
Nowland, who had a walking aid, fell and hit her head, fracturing her skull. She died in hospital a week later, surrounded by family.
White was sentenced to a community corrections order for a period of two years, and 425 hours of community service.
Harrison said in his sentencing that a jail term was not necessary given White had already lost his job and become an “unwelcome member” of the Cooma community …
