Kristian White gazed forward, holding his fiancee’s hand, as he walked out of the New South Wales supreme court in Sydney after being found guilty of the manslaughter of 95-year-old Clare Nowland.
“Mr White, do you have anything to say to the family?” one journalist could be heard saying above a barrage of questions from the surrounding media pack on Wednesday.
The police officer did not answer. White, 34 – whose bail has been continued – remained silent, got into the backseat of a car and was driven away.
More than 18 months ago, White was off duty when he was woken in the early hours of the morning to attend an unfolding situation at a Snowy Mountains nursing home.
A 95-year-old woman who lived at Yallambee Lodge in Cooma, and moved with the aid of a walking frame, was bothering residents with a knife. A call had come for an ambulance but, because she was carrying a knife, police were sent too.
CCTV footage played to White’s manslaughter trial shows White, alongside nursing staff, paramedics and his policing partner, Sgt Jessica Pank, walking through the nursing home, searching for Nowland. They appear relaxed as they talk with each other.
Shortly after, they confront Nowland in a nearby nurse’s room. The situation escalated quickly. Body-worn camera footage from both police officers tendered as evidence to the court showed it took just three minutes, after repeated requests for Nowland to drop the knife she was carrying, for White to fire the Taser that would ultimately kill her.
“You’re going to get Tased. Stop,” White says to Nowland. Soon after, he fires his warning arc.
“Stop. Just, nah, bugger it,” the video played in court shows.
Nowland died a week later from inoperable bleeding on the brain.
The guilty verdict for White, who had denied the charges and is yet to be sentenced, marks the end of an important chapter in the 18-month ordeal. But questions still remain.
Shortly after the verdict was delivered, the NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, told reporters White’s employment was “under consideration” now that he had been found guilty. Since the incident in May 2023, White has been on leave with pay from the police force.
“I pass on my condolences to the Nowland family,” Webb told reporters. “This should never have happened.”
‘I didn’t think she’d be significantly injured’
In his opening argument in the eight-day long trial, White’s barrister, Troy Edwards SC, told the court it was not in dispute that the injuries caused by White tasering Nowland ultimately killed her. But he argued White’s use of the Taser involved a reasonable use of force.
The prosecutor, Brett Hatfield SC, argued that White was guilty of manslaughter by way of criminal negligence or by way of an unlawful and dangerous act.
Prof Susan Kurrle, a geriatrician, who did not know Nowland when she was alive but analysed her health records for the court, found Nowland displayed behaviour consistent with moderate to moderately severe dementia.
This, she said, impeded her ability “to understand what was happening to her and to comply with instructions”.
Rosaline Baker, the nurse in charge the night Nowland was shot with a Taser, told the court that she called triple zero after Nowland had threatened residents with a steak knife and refused to hand it over. Her attempts to coax the knife from Nowland herself had not worked.
Pank, who responded to the call with White, said when they arrived she asked one of the nurses for Nowland’s medical history.
“I did ask [the nurse] if she had dementia … her response was ‘don’t they all have a little bit of dementia?’” Pank told the court.
A paramedic on the scene, Anna Hofner, who first asked Nowland to drop the knife, agreed in court that none of the responders were in immediate danger of being struck by Nowland. However, under cross-examination she said she did worry that she might be stabbed.
Asked by Hatfield if Nowland would have put down the knife had they waited long enough, Hofner responded: “Possibly … but how long would we have had to wait?”
The body cam footage shows that, in some instances, Nowland appears not to comprehend that the responders are speaking to her. In other moments she lifts her right arm – carrying the knife – and thrusts it towards the police. She walks forwards, slowly, using the walker, to the officers.
‘She was going to use that knife on anyone’
On the sixth day of the trial, White entered the witness box for the first time. He appeared calm, telling the court he tried to give Nowland “every opportunity to drop the knife” she was carrying. But, he said, she had “made her intent clear: she was going to use that knife on anyone that got near her”.
White also told the court simply taking the knife out of Nowland’s hand came with “risk, high risk”.
“At the police academy we are taught ‘any person with a knife is a danger’,” he told the court.
White was asked: “Did you consider it would result in her dying?”
“No,” White said. “I’m upset and devastated by it. I never intended for her to be injured by it at all. I accept Tasers cause an injury but I’ve never seen it cause a serious injury.”
Sen Sgt William Watt – who is employed by NSW police to train officers on firearms, defence and tactics, and the use of force – gave evidence that police were trained to see a person armed with a knife as a “significant threat”.
However, Watt told the court, police are advised Tasers should not be used in “exceptional circumstances”, including against “elderly or disabled persons”.
The court heard that White was not trained at the police academy on the “exceptional circumstances” when a Taser should not be deployed.
The morning after the incident, White reportedly told another police officer: “I’ve had a look and, supposedly, we aren’t meant to Tase elderly people but, in the circumstance, I needed to.”
‘The policy and training is appropriate’
Last May, while Nowland was fighting for her life in hospital, her family sued the government over the incident. Almost a year later, a confidential settlement was reached.
The incident put a number of police practices in the spotlight, including how they respond to people with dementia, and mental health call-outs more broadly.
The first question Webb was asked in the press conference on Wednesday was whether the verdict could trigger a change in how police use Tasers.
“We did review our Taser policy and training in January this year, and no updates or amendments were made,” Webb responded.
“The policy and training is appropriate.”
Webb was also asked if she believed police received adequate training for dealing with people with dementia. She said that is “a question that has been raised” but she didn’t want to speculate while legal proceedings were still “afoot”.
“It does go to the heart of this, this matter, and I think it’s better left until all matters have concluded,” Webb said.
The NSW Greens’ justice spokesperson, Sue Higginson, said the “fact that Kristian White and his legal defence could mount a defence of reasonable use of force in the circumstances indicates something is deeply wrong with the way police view the use of force in policing”.
Particularly, she added, in response to vulnerable people, including mental health incidents.
“We need a better system of police response and accountability in relation to the use of force, including the use of weapons,” Higginson said. “The police commissioner and minister [for police] surely can’t think everything is OK and we just carry on with the way things are.”
Sam Lee, a supervising solicitor at Redfern Legal Centre, said it was rare for a police officer to be convicted of manslaughter.
“This verdict serves as a powerful warning to police that their actions do not operate within a legal vacuum; they can be scrutinised and subjected to a legal test that may lead to a conviction,” Lee said.
Nowland’s family, many of whom were in court every day for the eight-day long trial, were in the room for the verdict.
“The family will take some time to come to terms with the jury’s confirmation that Clare’s death at the hands of a serving NSW police officer was a criminal and unjustified act,” they said in a statement, via their lawyer.
