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A New South Wales police officer has been found guilty of manslaughter by a jury after he fatally electrocuted a knife-wielding 95-year-old woman.
Senior Constable Christian James Samuel White, 34, fired his stun gun at Claire Nowland in a treatment room at Yallambee Lodge nursing home in the southern New Wales town of Cooma in the early hours of May 17, 2023.
In videos aired during his trial in the NSW Supreme Court, he was heard saying “no, fuck it” before shooting the great-grandmother in the torso.
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Knowland, who was holding a steak knife at the time, fell backwards and hit her head before dying a week later in hospital.
White was found guilty on Wednesday in the NSW Supreme Court.
Jurors heard eight days of evidence and testimony in the trial, including from White’s medical staff, paramedics and police chief who were there at the time he fired.
In closing statements, prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC urged jurors to find White guilty, saying his actions were “totally unnecessary and clearly dangerous”.
Nowland posed a limited threat and no one was in immediate danger of being stabbed at the time the weapon was fired, he told the court.
However, defense barrister Troy Edwards SC argued White’s use of force was reasonable and proportionate to the danger the 95-year-old posed while wielding the knife.
It was a police officer’s duty to keep the peace and the 34-year-old senior constable did just that by keeping others from harm, he told the jury.
More to come…
– With AAP
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