The family of 95-year-old Clare Nowland say they are struggling to come to terms with how Kristian White can “walk free” after a failed appeal by New South Wales prosecutors against the ex-police officer’s community sentence.
On Wednesday, White avoided jail again after three justices that oversaw the appeal stated that the non-custodial sentence imposed on White “albeit lenient, was not manifestly inadequate”.
While a NSW senior police constable, White fired his Taser at the great-grandmother two minutes and 40 seconds after he arrived to a call out at the Yallambee Lodge nursing home in May 2023. Nowland fell, did not regain consciousness and died in hospital a week later.
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The 35-year-old was found guilty of manslaughter by a jury last year and in March was handed a two-year good behaviour bond and ordered to complete community service.
After White was sentenced, the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions announced it would appeal against “the inadequacy of the sentence imposed in this matter”.
Justice Ian Harrison, when handing down his sentencing decision in the NSW supreme court in March, said the incident “falls in the lower end of objective seriousness” for manslaughter and that time in prison would be “disproportionate”.
At the time, Nowland’s family eldest son called it “a slap on the wrist for someone that’s killed our mother”.
The appeal was overseen by the chief justice Andrew Bell, justice Anthony Pane and justice Natalie Adams. The trio agreed on the finding that Harrison did not err in his assessment of the objective seriousness of White’s actions.
They also found Harrison did not err in his finding that deterring White from offending again did not need to be a major consideration in his sentencing, given it occurred in the “confined scope of being a police officer” and was an “error of judgment”.
“We do not live in a perfect world and errors of judgement, even ones as tragic and significant as that which occurred in the present case, regularly happen,” they wrote in a judgment published on Wednesday.
In a statement after the judgment was handed down, Nowland’s family said: “While respectful of the court’s decision, the Nowland family is struggling to come to terms with how the NSW legal system can allow an outcome in which a former police officer who was convicted of using deadly force on Clare, a vulnerable and defenceless 95-year old lady, while in her own home, can walk free without having spent a single day in gaol.
“The Nowland family is grateful to the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions and her team for all their work in pursuing justice for Clare.”
Outside the court, the Nowland family’s lawyer, Sam Tierney, was asked if there were other steps the family could take to appeal this decision. Tierney noted that an application for special leave to appeal could be made in high court but he said that was decision for the DPP.
He also noted the coronial inquest into Nowland’s death was yet to happen and it would examine broader issues.
Tierney represented the family in a civil suit against the state of NSW. They reached a confidential settlement last May.
White was called to the Yallambee Lodge home after Nowland, who was displaying symptoms of dementia, was found disoriented in the middle of the night, walking around the property carrying a serrated knife.
Nowland, who weighed just 47kg, could only move slowly with the aid of a walker. She was confronted by White, who ordered her to put the knife down.
When Nowland did not comply, appearing not to understand the instruction, White said “nah, bugger it” and fired his Taser at her chest, causing her to fall heavily and hit her head.
Nowland died a week later in hospital after suffering inoperable bleeding in the brain.
