Cop who tasered grandmother drops bid to get job back

Then-senior constable Kristian James Samuel White fired his Taser at 95-year-old Clare Nowland after being called to Yallambee Lodge nursing home at Cooma in southern NSW on May 17, 2023.

He avoided being jailed in March. He was given a two-year good behaviour bond and ordered to complete community service after a NSW Supreme Court jury found him guilty of manslaughter.

White was suspended from his job with pay for about 18 months but was notified after an initial guilty verdict in November 2024 that he would be suspended without pay.

Police Commissioner Karen Webb said in December she had removed White from the force because she had no confidence in his ability to continue his duties.

That prompted him to take action at the Industrial Relations Commission against NSW Police.

But on Monday he dropped his legal challenge, with the Supreme Court saying the matter was closed.

It comes nearly two weeks after White walked free in late July.

His sentence was upheld after three judges from the NSW Court of Appeal dismissed a legal challenge by prosecutors seeking a prison term.

The court considered that White had lost his job and was unwelcome in the small town of Cooma where he lived, chief judge Andrew Bell noted.

The 35-year-old has been diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety, and has admitted to thoughts of self-harm since he was sentenced. 

During the two-minute and 40-second encounter at Yallambee Lodge, White drew his stun gun and pointed it at Mrs Nowland for a minute before saying "Nah, bugger it" and discharging the weapon at her chest. 

The 48kg great-grandmother, who had symptoms of dementia, fell and hit her head.

She did not regain consciousness and died in hospital a week later after a brain bleed.

Australian Associated Press