A police officer who, with his taser, has shot one of the few members of the armed forces, can be one of the few members to be trapped during a service in death.
Former senior agent Kristian White will be convicted of the tragic incident in the southern NSW city of Cooma, which led to the death of 95-year-old Clare Nowland.
On Friday he will learn if he is imprisoned before her manslaughter after he fired his weapon on her in the Yallambee Lodge Aged-Care Home in the early hours of 17 May 2023.
Mrs Nowland held a knife while using a walking frame and had ignored attempts from the staff to disarm her.
The 35-year-old officer said 'No, Bugger It' before firing the taser's hooks on her chest, causing her to fall and hits her head.
The great -grandmother suffered from the brain and died in the hospital a week later.
Unsw Criminology Expert Helen Gibbon said it was very rare for Australian police officers to persecute for killing a person in the line of service.
“It is even rarer that the police are convicted of a crime in connection with a murder,” she said Aap.
Former senior agent Kristian White (photo) will be convicted of the tragic incident in the southern NSW town of Cooma that led to the death of Clare Nowland
The former agent was swollen by the media when he arrived in Sydney on Friday
Mrs. Nowland, a great -grandmother, held a knife while using a walking frame and ignored attempts from the staff to disarm her
Public Prosecutors have forced NSW Supreme Court Justice Ian Harrison to prisoner for the crime, but the lawyers of the former officer have claimed that he only made a judgment of the judgment and should receive a more mild punishment.
In the decision to pursue a criminal case against an officer, the director of public persecutions would already take into account that the police worked in difficult, often volatile circumstances, university teacher Gibbon noted.
“There must also be a willingness on behalf of a prosecution body to prosecute a police officer who kills a person while performing their duties, as well as a willingness of the jurys to condemn a police officer,” she said.
“Historically, such a willingness was missing.”
It was difficult to predict how Justice Harrison would rule because there were factors that were both a prison sentence and a punishment in the community, Assoc Profed Gibbon added.
In Queensland, senior Sergeant Chris Hurley was acquitted in 2007 of manslaughter about the death of Cameron Doomadgee on Palm Island.
Mrs. Nowland is depicted in her Cooma nursing home, just a few moments before she was beaten
In 2022, Agent Zachary Rolfe was on the northern territory for the murder of Kumanjayi Walker, but was also acquitted.
In NSW in 2023, Sergeant Matthew Kelly was acquitted of manslaughter, but convicted of negligent driving after the fatal police of Jack Roberts.
White was removed from the police in December, less than a week after a jury was guilty of the manslaughter of Mrs. Nowland.
He started legal steps for an assessment of that decision.
