An intensive care paramedic has described her disbelief upon witnessing a police officer fatally Taser a 95-year-old woman with dementia in a New South Wales nursing home. Anna Hofner, who was present at Yallambee Lodge in Cooma on 17 May 2023, told an inquest on Wednesday that she felt "absolute shock and disbelief" when then-senior constable Kristian James Samuel White deployed his stun gun against Clare Nowland.
"I didn't think the use of a Taser was proportionate to the magnitude of the incident … it seemed excessive," Hofner testified at Queanbeyan coroner's court, where a three-day inquest is being held.
Emergency services had been called to the facility in the early hours after Nowland, who had symptoms of dementia, took two serrated steak knives from the kitchen and refused to give them up. The 48kg great-grandmother fell and struck her head after being hit by the Taser's barbs. She never regained consciousness and died in hospital a week later from a brain bleed.
Call for De-escalation Tactics
Hofner suggested that employing a "pause point"—a moment when first responders stop to discuss the next steps as an incident escalates—could have been beneficial. Given Nowland's mobility issues, police and ambulance officers had the opportunity to develop a plan, she said. Earlier, counsel assisting Sophie Callan SC noted that one alternative was to simply wait it out by closing the only door to the room Nowland was in and monitoring her through the window. However, this did not occur, and police force was used instead.
Callan described the elderly woman's death as having "rocked her family, the local community, and the broader NSW community to its core." Nowland was known as an extremely generous woman who engaged in charitable work and pursued interests like golf and travel until her late 80s.
Systemic Issues Under Scrutiny
Coroner Teresa O'Sullivan is examining systemic issues that existed before the Taser incident, focusing on dementia care and training for aged care staff, police, and ambulance officers. Callan noted that with Australia's ageing population, it is an opportune time to make recommendations that could save lives. The court heard that one in four people over 80 has dementia, and the number of people with dementia is expected to double in the next 20 years, affecting over 4% of the population.
Callan argued that the situation facing White as Nowland stepped toward him and his police partner with a knife was not exceptional enough to warrant Taser use. At the time of the incident, neither NSW police nor ambulance officers had received specific training for incidents involving people with dementia. The inquest heard that in 2024, ambulance officers were taught how to respond to a dementia patient wielding a spatula in an aged care facility.
Legal Aftermath
A NSW Supreme Court jury found White guilty of manslaughter in November 2024. He was sentenced to a two-year good behaviour bond in March 2025, a decision later upheld by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal. During the two-minute and 40-second encounter at Yallambee Lodge, White drew his stun gun and pointed it at Nowland for a minute before saying "nah, bugger it" and discharging the weapon at her chest. The 36-year-old Cooma man was removed from the force in December 2024. He initiated legal action against NSW police in the Industrial Relations Commission to regain his position but abandoned that bid in August.
