Ghostly CCTV footage reveals vulnerable 95-year-old great-grandmother’s final moments before she was tasered by a police officer

A court has shown an elderly woman’s harrowing final moments before she was fatally tasered by a police officer.

Senior Constable Kristian James Samuel White fired his stun gun at great-grandmother Clare Nowland at the Yallambee Lodge retirement home in the southern NSW town of Cooma in the early hours of May 17, 2023.

The 95-year-old hit her head on the ground when she fell and suffered an inoperable bleeding on the brain. She died a week later in Cooma Hospital.

A court heard on Wednesday that Ms Nowland’s level of dementia meant she would not have been able to comply with the commands White barked at her before she was fatally tasered.

White, who says he acted lawfully in the course of his duties as a police officer, returned for his trial in the NSW Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The High Court has also released a security view of the moments leading up to Ms Nowland’s tasering.

The video shows Ms. Nowland with her walker in a hallway moving out of shot as emergency responders gather in a separate hallway leading to the kitchen.

The group is led away by White before Mrs. Nowland leaves the room.

Footage released by the court shows Clare Nowland ‘moving slowly’ with her walker moments before she was tasered (pictured)

Senior Constable Kristian James Samuel White was captured on CTTV arriving at the nursing home shortly before the incident

Registered nurse Rosaline Baker, who was on duty at the time, told the court how she found Nowland in the hallway in her pink pajamas, “moving slowly” with her walker, carrying two steak knives and a quarter-full jug of prunes.

The nurse recalled how Mrs Nowland refused to hand over the items but ‘eventually’ gave up the plums.

Ms Baker said the great-grandmother still had the knives with her as she walked in and out of the bedrooms of four residents, and “asked for chocolates”, which were eventually offered by a fellow resident.

The camera footage also shows White arriving at the nursing home shortly before the incident.

Geriatrician Susan Kurrle told the jury she diagnosed Nowland with moderate to moderately severe dementia when she was tasered.

Although she was still mobile thanks to her four-wheeled walker, the 95-year-old would not have been able to understand what was happening around her or follow instructions, she said.

Video footage played in court Tuesday showed White shouting commands at Nowland as she shuffled forward while holding both a steak knife and her walker from one of the facility’s treatment rooms.

“If you keep coming, you’re going to get Tased,” the officer told her before firing.

Great-grandmother Clare Nowland, 95, (pictured) hit her head after being tasered and died in hospital a week later

Kurrle said Ms Nowland’s behavior had escalated in the three months before her death.

“She was constantly resisting changes or anything they asked of her, but she didn’t seem to understand it,” the expert said.

‘In retrospect, it is very clear that the symptoms developed during that time.’

Ms Nowland exhibited anti-social behavior in early 2023, including taking food from residents, trying to undress in social areas, disturbing residents in their rooms, wandering around in the cold and dark and refusing to accept help from staff, the jury heard.

The court was shown CCTV footage of three incidents at Yallambee Lodge in March and April 2023, when the 95-year-old physically lashed out, ramming a staff member with her walker, climbing an embankment and becoming stuck in a tree.

She was admitted to hospital on April 16 and prescribed the antipsychotic drug Risperdal to calm her aggressive behavior after hitting and biting staff.

After the incident, she was treated with some rosary beads and tea.

Under questioning from barrister Troy Edwards SC, Kurrle admitted that Ms Nowland’s behavior in the moments before she was tasered could have been a result of staff deciding to reduce the Risperdal dose two days earlier.

Senior Constable Kristian James Samuel White arrived at court today with his wife (pictured)

Registered nurse Caroline Baker had been working at Yallambee Lodge for just over two weeks and was on duty when White was called to the care home.

She tried to get Nowland out of the rooms of three other residents at around 3am on the day of the incident after the great-grandmother took two steak knives and a jug of prunes from a kitchen, the court was told.

Baker said nothing unusual was said about the 95-year-old at the handover when she started her shift.

The process continues.