A New South Wales police officer has been sacked from the force after he was convicted of manslaughter for fatally shooting a 95-year-old woman in a nursing home with a Taser.
In a statement released on Tuesday, the NSW police commissioner, Karen Webb, said she no longer had confidence in Sen Const Kristian James Samuel White’s suitability to continue as a police officer.
White used a Taser to shoot great-grandmother Clare Nowland, who was armed with a serrated knife and threatening police and staff, at her Cooma nursing home in May 2023. She died a week later from head injuries sustained when she fell backwards from the force of the Taser shot.
On Wednesday last week, White was found guilty of manslaughter in a unanimous jury verdict in the NSW supreme court.
Webb had told reporters shortly after the verdict was handed down that White had been on leave with pay and that his employment with the force was now “under consideration”. He was suspended without pay the following day.
Webb said on Tuesday that White had been sacked in line with procedures under the police act section 181D, which gives the police commissioner the power to fire an officer if confidence is lost in their suitability.
“Accordingly, I have removed him from the NSW police force and he has been advised via his legal counsel,” Webb said.
“I have spoken with the family of the 95-year-old victim involved in this matter and advised them of my decision.”
On Friday, Justice Ian Harrison – who said the case was unlike any other he had confronted in nearly over two decades on the bench – continued White’s bail until February, when sentencing was expected.
Harrison told the court that White did not intend to kill or seriously injure Nowland. He said he did not want to give “unwarranted hope” to White that he would avoid a jail sentence, but he said that a jail sentence was not “inevitable”.
The Nowland family issued a statement after the decision to extend White’s bail, saying they were disappointed by the decision.
White’s lawyer, Warwick Anderson, also issued a statement on White’s behalf. It said that White had “never lost sight of the fact that Mrs Nowland passed away and he is acutely aware that the Nowland family is deeply hurt by what happened”.
