Kristian White was sentenced to 450 hours of community service and placed under the supervision of a corrections officer for two years for manslaughter.
“Mr. White made by what any measure was a terrible mistake,” Justice Ian Harrison said in the New South Wales state Supreme Court.
Prosecutors had called for a prison term in the killing of Clare Nowland, a great-grandmother who suffered dementia, but the judge said such a punishment was disproportionate.
“It is … at the lower end of seriousness of crimes amounting to wrongful death,” Harrison said.
Let me guess, he felt threatened by the 95 year old woman.
Ugh. I’m going to get downvoted … but I kind of agree with the ruling.
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We don’t know the whole story. A 95 year old dementia patient with a butcher knife hits her head and dies after being tazed… that’s the summary. The courts had all the details and likely made the best decision.
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One dumb unfortunate mistake should not put an officer in prison for 10+ years. This man served his community for years only to make one regretful split second decision … his years of service have to count for something and balance out the mistake.
Here’s what happened. It was a steak knife (not a butcher knife), she was using a walker, and she was 5’ 2" tall.
A 95-year-old woman is in critical condition after police in Australia shocked her with a stun gun as she approached them with a walking frame and a steak knife at her nursing home.
At the time, "she was approaching police, but it is fair to say at a slow pace,” he said. “She had a walking frame, but she had a knife.”
After responding to a call about a patient having a knife in her possession, Cotter said Nowland was found in a “small confined” treatment room by two officers who arrived at the scene.
“Negotiations commenced for her to drop the knife. For whatever reasons, Clare did not do that,” he said, adding that the senior constable activated his stun gun, which are widely known as Tasers after a major manufacturer.
The 5-foot-2 woman, who weighs 95 pounds, fell to the ground and struck her head.
Given that the whole point of a device like that is they incapacitate without doing permanent harm, that sounds entirely reasonable at first glance.
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Fucking bullshit, but entirely unsurprising that a cop gets away with a slap on the wrist for something that would put anyone else away behind bars. NSW has never truly moved on from the Rum Corp
I heard about an aussie officer serving a few years for shooting a running suspect in the back with a taser.
I’d like to see a source for that, because that definitely sounds like nonsense.
“It is … at the lower end of seriousness of crimes amounting to wrongful death,” Harrison said.
Explain to me how electrocuting a frail 95 y/o demented woman to death ranks ‘on the lower end’ of crimes involving fatalities. Seriously, explain it to me like I’m 3, because I can’t believe that this statement was issued by a judge.
The whole point of a TAZER is it incapacitates without killing, are you seriously suggesting this was intentional?
Remember, it wasn’t the shock that killed her, it was the subsequent fall.
Because that’s not what he did.
The woman was holding a steak knife and refused to drop it, he shot her with the taser which caused her to fall - as tasers are designed to - but she hit her head and died a week later in the hospital. That’s an injury that is always a risk when using tasers against anyone.
Should they be used against 95 year olds with walkers even if they do refuse to drop the knife and continue menacingly inching towards you, that’s an entirely different issue.
i dont think it justifies it. a trained cop can easily wrestle a knife from a 95-yr old.
Easy for you to say.
