Senior Constable Kristian White’s colleague Jessica Pank said Clare Nowland, 95, raised the knife at her three times as she tried to retrieve it at Yallambee Lodge nursing home
The colleague of a police officer who Tasered a 95-year-old great-grandmother to death in a care home has spoken out in court.
Clare Nowland suffered injuries when Senior Constable Kristian White, 34, discharged his Taser at her chest at Yallambee Lodge nursing home in Cooma, New South Wales, Australia, on May 17. She died a week later from a head injury. The officer is on trial in the NSW Supreme Court after pleading not guilty to manslaughter.
The Crown alleges the officer breached his duty of care and caused the woman’s death by either criminal negligence or a dangerous act. White admitted he deployed his weapon and caused Mrs Nowland’s death – but his lawyers said it was a proportionate reaction to the risk the woman posed by holding a knife.
On Thursday, Constable White’s colleague, Senior Constable Jessica Pank, told the court that she took the knife from the woman’s hand and blocked her from exiting a room. But she spoke of her fear as she said that Mrs Nowland, who weighed 47.5kg, was “holding the knife up and making stabbing motions” towards her, News.com.au reported.
According to The Guardian, Ms Pank said the elderly woman raised the knife at her three times as she tried to retrieve it. She told the court: “I remember saying to Kristian White, I think I can get the knife off her, I remember him saying, I’ll cover you. I remember moving forward because her hand was on the walker with the knife facing downwards. I thought I could grab her arm and somehow get the knife out of her hand.”
When asked if she had any reaction to her colleague, Mr White, using his Taser, Ms Park said “no”. She added that she saw the elderly woman “seizing up and slowly falling backward onto the ground” once the Taser was discharged, reported ABC News.
During cross-examination, defence lawyer Troy Edwards SC read out Constable Pank’s police statement on the incident, saying: “When she looked at me, 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.”
The statement added that Ms Pank felt she and her colleague “had done the best we could with the situation we were given.” The nurse on duty on the night of the incident, Rosaline Baker, said she watched the cop discharge the Taser at Mrs Nowland.
She said she saw “two little lights” before the “shot” which was “so loud” – and then the woman collapsed backwards. The trial continues.
