Senior constable’s ‘wave of fear’ before Clare Nowland tasered by Kristian White
A police officer has described the fear she felt as she saw a “wave of darkness” come over the face of a 95-year-old woman who was holding a knife before she was tasered.
Clare Nowland died of injuries sustained when Senior Constable Kristian White discharged his Taser at her chest in Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma on May 17.
The police officer is facing trial in the NSW Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to manslaughter over Mrs Nowland's death.
The Crown alleges he breached his duty of care to Mrs Nowland and caused her unlawful death by either criminal negligence or a dangerous act.
The 34-year-old does not dispute that he deployed his weapon and it caused Mrs Nowland’s death, but his lawyers maintain it was a proportionate reaction to the risk she posed by holding a knife.
On Thursday, Constable White’s colleague, Senior Constable Jessica Pank, recalled trying to contain the situation by taking the knife out of Mrs Nowland’s hand and blocking her from exiting a room.
“I remember her holding the knife up and making stabbing motions towards me as I was doing that,” she said.
Footage shows the 95-year-old woman held a knife in one hand but kept both hands on a four-wheeled walking frame when she moved slowly towards the doorway.
When Constable Pank attempted to approach Mrs Nowland to grab the knife, the footage shows Mrs Noland halting her progress and raising the weapon.
“I remember I was scared for my physical safety at this point, trying to get the knife because it looked really sharp and her eyes were dark,” Constable Pank said.
“When I got close, it was this wave of darkness that went over her face which did put a little bit of fear in me of being close to her to see that, yes, a wave of fear.”
She agreed that she was easily able to step backwards out of harm’s way because of Mrs Nowland’s slow movements and mobility issues.
At the time of the incident, she had been an Acting Sergeant and Constable White’s superior officer.
In a statement after the Taser incident, she explained she believed they had both “done the best we could in the situation”.
She was asked if she, as a supervisor and with the training she had, thought it was appropriate that Constable White discharged his Taser at Mrs Nowland.
“I was comfortable with the situation,” Constable Pank confirmed in part of the statement read out in court. However, she clarified she wasn’t happy about it.
Paramedics
Paramedic Anna Hofner said she was also concerned about the Mrs Nowland's knife when she tried to convince the woman to put it down in the moments before the tasering.
“She didn’t seem to acknowledge anything I said,” she said.
Mrs Nowland stood up with the help of her walking frame and started to slowly move towards the doorway, but Ms Hofner stepped back because “she was too close for my comfort”.
“I believe she was close enough that if she’d tried to strike out with her knife, I could have potentially been hit,” she said.
Ms Hofner clarified that was her fear at the time, but she could have stepped back and “at no time” did she feel like she was in immediate danger.
The paramedic watched as Constable Pank tried to take the knife but stepped back again after Mrs Nowland “raised the knife towards Jess in quite a quick motion”.
Ms Hofner told the court she believed the 95-year-old “had the intention to harm Jess” because “when Clare looked up at Jess, she had a look in her eyes like she would like to strike out at Jess.”
However, she agreed with Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC that there was “no danger” of any of them being struck by the slow-moving woman relying on a walking frame.
She said Mrs Nowland “didn’t appear to acknowledge” Constable White’s repeated requests to put down the knife or when he activated the warning arc of his Taser.
In footage previously shown to the court, but not released to the public, the police officer asked her repeatedly to put down the knife and sit down.
When she didn’t comply, he activated his Taser’s audio and visual warning signals and warned her: “You keep coming, you’re going to get tased.”
Mrs Nowland continued to proceed with both hands on her walking frame and Constable White said “Stop, just … Nah, bugger it” and discharged the weapon.
“Significant injuries“
Ms Hofner's colleague Kingsley Newman had been preparing a sedative medication to give to Mrs Nowland when he said he heard the “crackling” of the weapon.
Afterwards, Mr Newman said there was a burn mark on the Mrs Nowland's body, which mimicked the arc of the probes.
He also noted a nearly five centimetre haematoma on her head which was “unusual and concerning” due to developing almost instantaneously.
The paramedic told the jury that Mrs Nowland “had some facial droop on the opposite side to the injury, indicating a pretty significant brain bleed”.
In a statement after the incident, Ms Hofner recorded that she thought “some sort of physical action would have had to be taken to remove the knife” from Mrs Nowland.
“We were eventually going to have to have some sort of resolution” she said before saying she “could not foresee” the 95-year-old dropping the knife.
Ms Hofner later conceded the woman may have eventually relented, telling the jury: “Possibly, but how long would we have to wait?”
Uncharacteristically aggressive
The jury has heard Mrs Nowland was carrying two knives and using a walking frame to wander around the nursing home after 3am.
She entered the rooms of four of her fellow nursing home residents during that two hour period and refused to put down the knives when asked.
The court heard the 95-year-old had become uncharacteristically aggressive in recent months, which a geriatrician told the court could be attributed to her undiagnosed dementia.
In the early hours of May 17, the jury was told Mrs Nowland threw a knife at one of the aged care workers who was trying to coax her out of another resident’s room.
The nursing assistant, Mamta Rai, said she was standing in the doorway when Mrs Nowland stood up suddenly.
“At that moment, Clare stood up and threw one knife at me,” she recalled.
“It landed on the floor, it didn’t hit me directly.”
Ms Rai agreed with Constable White’s barrister Troy Edwards SC that she had felt scared and it was a “very frightening” experience.
She told the jury that she had worked in nursing homes for eight years and had never seen a dementia patient with a knife before that night.
“It was quite an unusual experience for me, I never encountered such an experience while working in the aged care industry,” Ms Rai said.
The incident prompted nurse Rosaline Baker to call triple-0 for assistance with Mrs Nowland, whom she described as “very aggressive” during the call.
An ambulance was dispatched and police were notified due to the presence of knives.
Read more:
Email: [email protected]