CCTV from Yallambee Lodge on 17 May 2023 captures Clare Nowland (top left) and the police, paramedics and staff preparing to look for her, including Kristian White (first person in blue on the left). Screenshot: NSW Supreme Court.
Footage of the moments before a police officer tasered 95-year-old Clare Nowland in her aged care home has been released by the NSW Supreme Court.
The footage does not show the actual tasering itself.
The Supreme Court jury trial against 34-year-old Senior Constable Kristian James Samuel White began this week, in which he pleaded not guilty to a charge of manslaughter.
Jurors heard Ms Nowland was holding a knife and using a walking frame in Yallambee Lodge in Cooma, NSW, on 17 May 2023, when he tasered her.
She fell over, hit her head on the ground and died from her injuries seven days later.
The tasering was captured on both security and body-worn cameras, which jurors saw on Tuesday (12 November).
The jurors also saw closed-circuit television footage (CCTV) from the lodge of Ms Nowland’s movements around the building before the incident, as well as of police, paramedics and staff searching for her.
Mr White was one of the two police officers called to the scene who began looking for her that morning.
The second police officer called to the scene, the then-acting Sergeant Jessica Pank, testified on Thursday (14 November) and said she was concerned she was going to be stabbed that morning.
Ms Pank said she, Mr White, paramedics and staff found Ms Nowland sitting on a chair in a small room with a knife in her right hand and her mobility walker in front of her.
She said a paramedic tried to convince Ms Nowland to put down the knife, but she slowly stood up using her walker.
Ms Pank said she repeatedly told Ms Nowland to put the knife down and stop moving, but she didn’t, so she told Mr White she thought she might be able to grab the knife.
“I thought I could grab her arm and somehow be able to get the knife out of her hand,” she said.
However, Ms Pank said while she tried to move towards Ms Nowland twice, Ms Nowland held the knife up towards the acting sergeant’s hands each time.
“The pointed end of it looked really sharp to me,” Ms Pank said.
When Ms Nowland reached the doorway, Ms Pank said she tried to push her mobility walker’s wheel against the wall with her foot to block it from moving forward, but the wheel swivelled and became unstuck.
She said she stood back and realised Mr White had the taser out.
A NSW Supreme Court trial has begun over the death of Clare Nowland. Photo: Supplied.
“When the taser was discharged, I remember Clare seizing up and then slowly falling backwards onto the ground,” Ms Pank said.
“I went in and got the knife out of her hand … and then I attempted to make sure Clare was okay.”
Prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC asked if she had any concerns the first time she tried to grab the knife.
“Yes, I thought that I was going to be stabbed,” she said.
“At the time I was just thinking that when I was near her, I could have been stabbed.”
Under cross-examination from defence barrister Troy Edwards SC, Ms Pank accepted she felt like she could have been stabbed a number of times during the incident.
She also accepted his suggestion that she had been feeling “frightened”.
The forensic pathologist who conducted the autopsy told jurors that the cause of death for Ms Nowland, who weighed about 47 kg, was blunt force trauma to the head with complications.
Mr Edwards said it was not disputed that the tasering ultimately led to Ms Nowland’s death seven days later.
However, he said it was his client’s sworn duty as a police officer to stop the threat and counter the risk Ms Nowland posed to herself and others due to her possession of the knife.
The jury trial continues before Justice Ian Harrison.
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