An elderly woman who confronted police and paramedics with a knife was an imminent threat but was not expected to die after being tasered, the officer who fired the weapon has told a jury.
Senior Constable Kristian White discharged his stun gun at Clare Nowland in a treatment room at Yallambee Lodge aged-care home in the southern NSW town of Cooma during the early hours of May 17, 2023.
The 95-year-old great-grandmother, who had symptoms of dementia and was holding a steak knife at the time, fell backwards and hit her head before dying a week later in hospital.
As White's trial entered its second week on Monday, the 34-year-old explained from the witness box that he only intended to incapacitate the aged-care resident and disarm her of the weapon.
"I’m upset and devastated by it," he said under questioning from his barrister Troy Edwards SC.
"I never intended for her to be injured by it at all."
The senior constable pointed the stun gun at Mrs Nowland as she shuffled forward out of the treatment room, ignoring four of his verbal warnings and the loud electrical crackles of the weapon's warning arc.
White said he tried to give her every opportunity to stop moving or to drop the knife.
He eventually said "nah, bugger it" before firing the weapon because it was clear the incident - during which Mrs Nowland had been armed with the knife for several hours - wasn't going to be resolved without force.
"I didn't want to have to tase Clare but I was also weighing up the safety of everyone present," White told the NSW Supreme Court.
He denied suggestions from crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC that Mrs Nowland was actually stationary and nothing was immediately going to happen to him or his police partner moments before he fired the Taser.
White said he had only seen the 95-year-old move forward in a "shuffle walk" but did not want to make assumptions about her speed after only observing her for a minute before firing.
"There was nothing imminent at that point in time,” Mr Hatfield said.
“It seemed pretty imminent to me, her intent,” White replied.
The woman had shown an intention to use the knife by raising it towards anyone who approached, the officer previously told the court.
Walking away and letting her wander elsewhere in the facility would have been a gamble that put more people at risk, White said.
"Our job is to maintain the peace," he said.
"Letting her wander the corridors armed with a knife would definitely in my mind be a breach of that peace.”
White said he thought the tasering was justified as it met the exceptional criteria test required by NSW Police for the use of the weapon on an elderly person.
But he admitted he did not know of this test until after the incident when his partner, then-acting Sergeant Jessica Pank, showed him the standard police operating procedures.
White denied a suggestion he altered his police report about the incident to match what he read in the policy document.
He told Mr Hatfield he assumed Mrs Nowland would have fallen forwards onto her walker because she had been hunched over while standing.
When asked if the 95-year-old looked frail, White described her as "not the frailest I’ve seen".
A description that the great-grandmother moved very slowly was also "subjective", the officer argued.
"There was a clear risk that if she fell as a frail, old lady she could be seriously injured," Mr Hatfield said.
“I disagree,” White replied.
The officer has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter after being accused of criminal negligence or conducting an unlawful and dangerous act that led to Mrs Nowland's unlawful killing.
Closing submissions will begin on Tuesday.
