NSW’s police chief has defended her decision not to watch confronting vision of a 95-year-old grandmother being tasered, while revealing her mother is also in an aged care facility with dementia.
It came as Police Commissioner Karen Webb defended the police decision to leave out any mention of a taser in the first media releases about last week’s disturbing incident.
Clare Nowland, who has dementia, was using a walking frame when she was hit with a police taser at Yallambee Lodge aged care facility in Cooma last Wednesday, after allegedly failing to drop a steak knife.
The mother of eight is receiving end-of-life care in Cooma District Hospital, surrounded by her distraught family, having been being critically injured when she fell after being tasered.
Ms Webb said body-worn camera footage from the officers on the scene would form part of the critical incident investigation report. But she did not plan to watch the footage before all other statements and evidence were collated.
“It may be the case in the future where I have to make a determination based on a brief of evidence, without being tainted by having seen a part of the brief without context,” Ms Webb told Sydney radio 2GB on Monday.
“It’s important that we follow a process.
“I will make my determination impartially.”
Ms Webb said it was important to view the footage “in the context of all the other statements and evidence”.
Part of the evidence will involve transcripts of interviews and an expert review in the context of the use of tasers and police procedures and training.
“That’s just going to take time [and] I’m not going to interfere in that process … it would be inappropriate for me to push in and interfere in that process,” she said.
She also denied police were “hiding anything” by choosing to omit any mention of the word “taser” when first revealing that police had injured the 95-year-old woman. It said only that she had “sustained injuries during an interaction with police at an aged care facility in the state’s south”.
“It was important that the family were informed of the situation in a factual manner before we went public on it, and I think that’s very necessary, and I’m sure that family appreciates that now,” Ms Webb said.
“Mrs Nowland has a large family and we didn’t want that family to hear on radio or on TV what had happened to their mum, and so we had to be sensitive to that and when we were able to talk about it we did.”
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NSW Premier Chris Minns described the incident as troubling but maintained he had confidence in the investigation and supported Ms Webb’s decision to view the footage in context.
“She didn’t say that she would never watch it, but she wanted to do it in context and I think that’s an important part of the process,” he said.
Ms Webb’s latest statements came after a local priest gave a sad update on Mrs Nowland’s condition.
Father Mark Croker said he visited Mrs Nowland in hospital on Sunday and said mass as her family held vigil. He told media the 95-year-old was unconscious, but she looked “peaceful” and seemed able to hear her visitors.
“She looks peaceful, she’s not conscious but she certainly looks comfortable,” Father Croker told The Daily Telegraph.
The priest said he last spoke to Mrs Nowland a week earlier, when she was in hospital for a minor illness.
“We had a very good conversation. Her daughter was there too … she had her knitting with her, which was her thing in later life, she was in very good form,” he told The Telegraph.
Mrs Nowland, who weighs 43 kilograms and is 155 centimetres tall, is receiving end-of-life care in hospital.
Elsewhere, Ms Webb expects a report from experts on taser use in the next couple of weeks.
“I want answers like everyone else does,” she said.
“I’m … a daughter of someone with dementia and in aged care and I think it’s hugely concerning, but I need to be objective.”
Ms Webb previously said police would not make the footage public, adding it was protected under the Surveillance Act.
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey refused on Sunday to back calls for the probe to be released to the public once complete, saying the investigation was being overseen by the NSW Police watchdog, the Law Enforcement Conduct Commission.
– with AAP
