A former constable who fatally shot a 95-year-old dementia patient with his Taser will avoid jail after a judge ruled he had ‘completely misunderstood’ the situation.
Kristian White, 35, was placed on a two-year community corrections order following a sentencing hearing in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday.
The ex-cop will need to perform 425 hours of community service work and be supervised by a community corrections officer.
In handing down his decision, Justice Ian Harrison found that White made a ‘terrible mistake’ but that his crime fell at the lower end of objective seriousness.
At a prior sentencing hearing, prosecutors pushed Justice Harrison to jail White for the crime. However, the judge instead sided with the ex-officer’s lawyers.
They argued he only made an error of judgement and should receive a more lenient sentence for that reason.
Justice Ian Harrison said a jail term would be ‘disproportionate’ and that White does not pose a risk of reoffending or a danger to the community.
White 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.
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
Mrs Nowland is pictured in her Cooma nursing home just moments before she was Tasered
The charge carries a maximum of 25 years behind bars in NSW.
Mrs Nowland was holding a steak knife while using a walking frame and had been ignoring attempts by staff to disarm her moments before she was Tasered.
The 35-year-old officer said “nah, bugger it” before firing the Taser’s 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.
Mrs Nowland’s family attended the sentencing on Friday.
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.
White was removed from the police force in December, less than a week after a jury found him guilty of Mrs Nowland’s manslaughter.
He has launched legal action for a review of that decision.
