‘Two knives’: New detail on 95yo Tasered by cop

The full details of the moments leading up to and after the widely reviled incident, which led to the elderly woman’s death and saw the police officer criminally charged have been released for the first time after a NSW Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday.

Clare Nowland, who had dementia, had been living at Yallambee Lodge in Cooma, southern NSW, for five years when officers were called to assist in a disturbance involving her in the early hours of May 17.

The court documents reveal the 95-year-old was found wandering into different rooms of the aged care home at 3am.

With the assistance of a walking frame, she was seen entering the rooms of three residents and leaning over their beds while holding two kitchen knives, the documents state.

As nursing home staff tried to contact her family, police allege Mrs Nowland threw a knife at one of the carers, which landed on the floor.

The employees called NSW Ambulance as they surmised she would likely need to be sedated.

The court documents reveal the decision was made to also contact Cooma Police because the great-grandmother had two knives in her possession.

Senior constable Kristian White and an unnamed female colleague were pulled from their beds and “recalled for duty” because there were no active police officers on duty on May 17, according to police.

The nursing home staff locked Mrs Nowland in another resident’s room for more than 20 minutes while they waited for the paramedics to arrive.

However, when they arrived at 4.38am, she had disappeared from the room through a back exit, sparking a desperate search.

When the carers found the great-grandmother, she was still clutching one knife and using her walking frame, the documents allege.

Mrs Nowland refused to put the weapon down and pointed it at a carer, according to police allegations, before ambling away and disappearing again, sparking another search of the nursing home grounds.

When Mr White and his unnamed female colleague arrived at the scene just before 5am, the 95-year-old was still missing.

The police facts tendered to the court say the pair had retrieved a ‘Taser 7’ conducted electrical weapon from the Cooma Police Station when they collected their police vehicle.

Just after 5am, the court documents state Mrs Nowland was found inside a small office inside the aged care home.

She was sitting on a chair with a small torch and a knife in her hand and her walker next to her when the ambulance and police officers congregated outside the room.

Police allege a paramedic asked the dementia patient to drop the knife and she responded by placing the torch on the desk in front of her.

She then got to her feet with the assistance of her four-wheel walking frame, despite pleas from emergency services personnel for her to remain seated.

According to the police statement of facts tendered to the court, Mr White and his colleague discussed the sharpness of the knife in her hand, and the female officer said she might be able to reach the knife and take it out of Mrs Nowland’s hand.

But when she tried to approach, police allege the 95-year-old took her hand off the walker slightly and pointed the knife at the officer.

As the female officer retreated, police claim Mrs Nowland walked slowly towards the doorway and again pointed the knife in her direction.

According to the police documents, Mr White activated the Taser’s warning device in response, and pointed it at the chest of the 43kg woman.

“Clare, stop now, see this, this is a taser,” he allegedly said to the great-grandmother.

“Drop it now, drop it, this is your first warning.”

The senior constable then deployed the audio and visual warning display from the Taser, which police claim had “little to no” effect on Mrs Nowland.

“See you are going to get tased,” Mr White allegedly said to the elderly woman.

Police allege she continued to move towards the officers, and again raised her knife at the female officer.

Mr White allegedly then said to Mrs Nowland, “stop just … na bugger it” and deployed his Taser into the chest of the elderly woman, who weighed only 43 kgs.

She fell backwards and struck “her head heavily on the wooden floor” of the nursing home, according to police.

Police state the first responders rushed forward, secured the knife, and commenced first aid.

Mrs Nowland was found to have a large lump on her head and was “largely unresponsive”.

She was later found to have an inoperable bleed on her brain.

Police confirm Mr White refused to participate in an electronically recorded interview after the critical incident.

The footage of the tragic incident captured on a police body camera has previously been described as “confronting”.

The court documents outline the current standard operating procedure for police, which specifies that officers should not deploy a Taser against an elderly person except in exceptional circumstances.

An expert in Operational Training, Safety, and Governance told investigators that the confrontation with Mrs Nowland did not meet that high threshold.

The Crown will allege Mr White’s response was “a grossly disproportionate response” which constituted “excessive use of force”.

Mr White was charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and common assault against the elderly woman.

Police allege his actions caused the catastrophic brain injuries that led to her death only a few days later in the Cooma Hospital.

Mrs Nowland died in hospital on May 24 in hospital surrounded by her loved ones. She had eight children, 24 grandchildren and 30 great-grandchildren.

Her family were provided with the police allegations against Mr White on Tuesday, a day before they were released to the media.

The family’s lawyer, Sam Tierney, said the family were reeling from the revelations contained in the document.

“The facts alleged against Mr White are extremely confronting and shocking,” the statement read.

“Clare’s family ask that they are please given privacy and space while they consider this latest information to be released from NSW Police around the circumstances of Clare’s death.”

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb previously said Mr White’s charges could be upgraded once the circumstances surrounding Mrs Nowland’s death were better known.

The incident led to widespread outrage at the treatment of an unwell elderly woman by both the nursing home and the NSW Police.

Yallambee Lodge has reported multiple incidents of harassment against staff in the wake of the fatal incident, while NSW Police has faced heavy ongoing criticism for their response.

One commentator labelled it “the biggest police scandal in years” as the details of the scandal unfolded.

Protests against police powers erupted in Sydney and appeared again outside Cooma Local Court when Mr White was due to make his first appearance over the charges.

A woman told reporters she was so affected by the case that she’d driven for hours from the NSW south coast to share a sign that read: “Hope your grandma’s proud of you, coward”.

Originally published as Full details of moment 95 year old tasered by cop revealed