NSW police officer appears in court charged with tasering 95yo dementia patient Clare Nowland
Clare Nowland was at Yallambee Lodge in Cooma when staff called NSW Police for assistance. (ABC News)
A magistrate has vented his anger at prosecutors for failing to tell him they had agreed to allow a NSW Police officer charged with tasering an elderly dementia patient to appear in court via video link.
Key points:
- Kristian White appeared in Cooma Local Court via video link on charges related to the death of dementia patient Clare Nowland
- Mrs Nowland died in hospital one week after an alleged confrontation with police on May 17
- The magistrate dismissed a detention application made by the prosecution
Senior Constable Kristian White, 33, allegedly tasered 95-year-old Clare Nowland at the Cooma nursing home Yallambee Lodge on May 17, and she later died.
Charges against him, including recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and common assault, were heard in Cooma Local Court on Wednesday morning.
Magistrate Roger Clisdell dismissed a detention application made by the NSW Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP).
He told the court he felt "absolute disgust" that the ODPP had allowed Senior Constable White to appear via video link without asking him.
"I didn't agree to it," Magistrate Clisdell told the court.
"Dumbo here, sitting on the bench, just has to suck it up."
He said the court had supplied added security outside court at "great expense".
Defence lawyer Warwick Anderson told the court the charges against his client were "serious", adding he was not a flight risk.
Senior Constable White is not on bail and has been in the community since his arrest in May.
The magistrate told the court he had expected Senior Constable White would have been placed on bail with a condition that he must attend court unless excused.
Clare Nowland died in hospital on May 24. (Supplied: NSW Police)
Magistrate given redacted copy of facts
Mrs Nowland had been a resident at Yallambee Lodge for five years at the time of the incident.
She was hospitalised in a critical condition after falling and fracturing her skull, and died in hospital on May 24.
At the time, police said they had been called to the facility and found Mrs Nowland holding a serrated steak knife.
They said she used a walking frame to approach them before the taser was deployed.
Kristian White appeared in the Cooma Local Court on Wednesday. (ABC South East NSW: Adriane Reardon)
Magistrate Clisdell also took a swipe at prosecutors over only being handed a redacted version of the police facts.
"Am I not trustworthy enough to see the unredacted copy?" he asked the court.
Magistrate Clisdell allowed a non-publication order on witness names within the case, with prosecutors saying it was due to the case "already being in the public eye".
The court heard the application for the order was triggered by the fact key witnesses in the case had received threats.
The magistrate adjourned the matter to Cooma Local Court on September 6.