<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>341280</docID> <postdate>2025-03-28 11:51:08</postdate> <headline>‘Terrible mistake’: cop who killed grandma spared jail</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-341281" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/20250207123732467280-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>Former senior constable Kristian White is set to hear whether he'll be jailed for manslaughter. (Steve Markham/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <b>Miklos Bolza </b>in Sydney</span></p> <div class="wire-column__preview__text" id="preview-body"> <p><strong>A police officer has been spared jail for what a judge described as his terrible mistake of fatally tasering a great-grandmother with dementia.</strong></p> <p>Former senior constable Kristian James Samuel White will walk out of the NSW Supreme Court on Friday subject to strict conditions after killing 95-year-old Clare Nowland in the southern NSW town of Cooma.</p> <p>The 35-year-old fired his Taser at the elderly woman after being called to the Yallambee Lodge aged-care home in the early hours of May 17, 2023.</p> <p>In handing down his decision, Justice Ian Harrison found White made a "terrible mistake" but that his crime fell at the lower end of seriousness when compared to other manslaughter cases.</p> <p>The firing of the stun gun after only a few minutes of trying to disarm Mrs Nowland was unlawful, dangerous and resulted from White misreading or misunderstanding the situation, the judge said.</p> <p>"A frail and confused 95-year-old woman in fact posed nothing that could reasonably be described as a threat of any substance," he told the packed courtroom.</p> <p>Mrs Nowland's death was serious, Justice Harrison said as he acknowledged the grief and anger her family felt while struggling to cope with the enormity of her passing.</p> <p>"The complete and utter frustration and despair exhibited by her family in the circumstances is easy to understand when things could have so easily been handled better," he said.</p> <p>However, White was only caught up in the incident as a police officer who had been lawfully called to the care facility, the judge noted.</p> <p>"He was required to resolve the situation ... and could not have chosen to do nothing," he said.</p> <p>There were tears by members of Mrs Nowland's family, while the former officer stood expressionless as his sentence was handed down.</p> <p>White will have to be on good behaviour and perform 425 hours of community service as part of his two-year community corrections order.</p> <p>In a letter to Mrs Nowland's family provided to the court, White expressed his sincere apologies and regret over what had happened.</p> <div class="wire-column__preview__text" id="preview-body"> <p>"I take full responsibility for my actions - I felt and still feel horrible for what happened," he wrote.</p> <p>"I do not expect you to take my apology as a request for forgiveness and I understand that you suffer greatly."</p> <p>The former officer has been diagnosed with major depressive disorder and post-traumatic-stress disorder after the incident and will have to move from the small town of Cooma because of the anger against him there.</p> <p>Mrs Nowland was holding a knife while using a walking frame and had been ignoring attempts by staff to disarm her before she was shot with the weapon.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>The great-grandmother suffered a bleed on the brain and died in hospital a week later.</p> <p>White was removed from the police force in December after the guilty verdict, but he has launched legal action for a review of that decision.</p> </div> </div> </body>