Former police officer who killed grandma Clare Nowland in fatal Tasering spared jail

A police officer has saved himself from what a judge described as his terrible error of fatally clicking on a great -grandmother with dementia.

The former student agent, Kristian James Samuel White, will leave the Supreme Court of Nueva Wales del Sur on Friday subject to strict conditions after killing Clare Nowland, 95, in the city of Cooma in the south of Nueva de Nueva del Sur.

The 35 -year -old man shot his taser to the old woman after being called to the Care house of Yallambee in the early hours of May 17, 2023.

When delivering his decision, Judge Ian Harrison found that White made a “terrible mistake”, but that his crime fell at the lower end of seriousness compared to other cases of involuntary homicide.

The shooting of the stunning gun after just a few minutes of trying to disarm Nowland was illegal, dangerous and turned out to read evil or misunderstanding the situation, the judge said.

“A fragile and confused woman, 95, in fact, did not represent anything that could be reasonably described as a threat of any substance,” he told the courtroom.

Nowland’s death was serious, Harrison said to recognize the pain and anger his family felt while fighting to deal with the enormity of his death.

“Frustration and complete and absolute despair exhibited by his family in circumstances is easy to understand when things could have been handled so easily,” he said.

However, White was only caught in the incident as a police officer who had been legally called to the center of attention, the judge said.

“He was asked to resolve the situation … and he couldn’t have chosen doing nothing,” he said.

There were tears of members of the Nowland family, while the former officer was inexpressive when his sentence was transmitted.

White will have to be in good behavior and perform 425 hours of community service as part of his two -year community corrections order.

In a letter to the Nowland family provided to the Court, White expressed his sincere apologies and lamented what had happened.

“I assume all the responsibility of my actions, I felt and I still feel horrible for what happened,” he wrote.

“I don’t hope I take my apology as a request for forgiveness and I understand that you suffer a lot.”

The former officer has been diagnosed with major depressive disorder and post -traumatic stress disorder after the incident and will have to move from the small city of Cooma due to anger against him there.

Nowland held a knife as he used a walking frame and had been ignoring the attempts of the staff to disarm it before they shot him with the weapon.

The 35 -year -old officer said “Nah, he manages” before shooting the taser spikes in his chest, making her fall and hitting her head.

The great grandmother suffered a bleeding in the brain and died at the hospital a week later.

White was withdrawn from the police force in December after the guilt verdict, but has launched legal actions for a review of that decision.