MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A former Australian police officer avoided a prison term when was sentenced Friday for killing a 95-year-old nursing home resident with a stun gun, in an outcome that disappointed the woman’s family.
Kristian White was sentenced to 450 hours of community service and placed under the supervision of a corrections officer for two years for manslaughter.
“Mr. White made by what any measure was a terrible mistake,” Justice Ian Harrison said in the New South Wales state Supreme Court.
Prosecutors had called for a prison term in the killing of Clare Nowland, a great-grandmother who suffered dementia, but the judge said such a punishment was disproportionate.
“It is … at the lower end of seriousness of crimes amounting to wrongful death,” Harrison said.
A jury convicted White last year, and he was fired from the New South Wales police in December. He had faced a potential maximum sentence of 25 years in prison for manslaughter.
Staff called police to a nursing home in Cooma on May 17, 2023, because Nowland was wandering through the building with a walker and holding a steak knife.
White fired his Taser at her within minutes of confronting her. She fell back and hit her head on the floor. She died in a hospital a week later from an inoperable brain bleed.
The judge said: “A frail and confused 95-year-old woman in fact posed nothing that could reasonably be described as a threat of any substance.”
Outside court, the victim’s son Michael Nowland expressed his family’s disappointment that White had not been sent to prison.
“It was very disappointing for the family, because — well, a slap on the wrist for someone that’s killed our mother,” the son said. “It’s very, very hard to process that.”
In a letter to Nowland’s family presented to the court, White gave his “sincere apologies for my actions.”
”I deeply regret my actions and the severe consequences it has caused to not only Mrs. Nowland but also to your family and the greater community,” White wrote.
“I take full responsibility for my actions. I felt and still feel horrible about what happened,” he added.
White did not speak to the media as he walked from the Sydney court Friday.
His lawyer Warwick Anderson told reporters outside court the couple was relieved that White had avoided jail.
“They’re going to take their time and move on with their lives,” Anderson said.
