A police officer who tried to disarm a 95-year-old nursing home resident who had a steak knife has told a court she feared she would be stabbed – and was “comfortable” with her partner’s decision to draw a Taser.
Acting Sgt Jess Pank, who appeared in the New South Wales supreme court on Thursday, responded to the call-out from a Snowy Mountains nursing home about a resident carrying a knife alongside Sen Const Kristian James Samuel White.
White is on trial after he pleaded not guilty to the manslaughter of Clare Nowland, who died in May 2023 after being tasered.
Nowland, who weighed 47.5kg, had been carrying the serrated steak knife in one hand after repeated requests to put it down and was supporting herself on her walker with the other hand when White discharged the Taser to disarm her.
She died a week later from a head injury caused by being tasered, the court has heard.
White’s barrister, Troy Edwards SC, has told the court it is not in dispute that the injuries caused by White tasering Nowland ultimately killed her. But he argued that White’s use of the Taser involved a reasonable use of force.
The prosecutor, Brett Hatfield SC, has argued that White was guilty of manslaughter by way of criminal negligence or by way of an unlawful and dangerous act.
Pank told the court that responders found Nowland in a treatment room, seated by her walker with a knife and another object in her hand.
The jury had previously heard that it was only around three minutes between responders finding Nowland and White shooting her with the Taser.
Pank said Nowland raised the knife at her three times as she made attempts to retrieve it.
“I remember saying to Kristian White, I think I can get the knife off her, I remember him saying, I’ll cover you. I remember moving forward because her hand was on the walker with the knife facing downwards,” Pank told the court. “I thought I could grab her arm and somehow get the knife out of her hand.”
Pank said when she stepped forward to get the steak knife, she didn’t feel at a safe distance and thought she could be stabbed.
Asked by Hatfield if she had any reaction to White drawing his Taser, Pank said “no”.
Under cross-examination by Edwards, the court heard that Pank had said in a statement after the incident that she was comfortable with White’s decision to draw his Taser. She also agreed under questioning that there were a number of times when she thought she could be stabbed, and that distance “feels different when there’s a knife raised at you”.
The two paramedics who also attended the incident appeared as witnesses on Thursday. Paramedic Anna Hofner – who stood in the doorway of the room where Nowland was with the knife and stepped back to let police take control – told the court she felt no immediate danger from Nowland.
“I suggest to you there was no danger of any of you being struck by her, do you agree or disagree?” Hatfield asked Hofner.
“I agree,” Hofner responded.
However, under cross-examination by Edwards, Hofner backtracked, saying she did worry that she may be stabbed.
Hofner told the court that when Pank stepped towards Nowland, “[Nowland] had a look in her eyes like she’d like to strike out” with the knife and “harm” Pank. Hofner said Nowland held up the knife in a “faster movement than I expected from her”.
“Clare immediately raised the knife towards Jess in quite a quick motion and looked directly at her, so Jess stepped back,” Hofner said.
“I’m not 100% sure if something else happened, but that might have been when Kristian pulled out the Taser. Or I turned to my partner and asked to him to draw out medication,” Hofner added, referring to a sedative the paramedics planned to administer to Nowland to calm her.
Hofner told the court that after White discharged the Taser – from which he fired a visual and aural warning before the shot – Nowland “didn’t appear to acknowledge what had occurred”.
“I didn’t see any obvious response, apart from the fact she did continue to walk towards him,” Hofner said.
Hofner had also told the court that when she had asked Nowland to put the knife down moments earlier, “there was no acknowledgment that she’d heard me”.
“She didn’t seem to acknowledge anything I said,” she told the court.
On Wednesday, the court heard from the geriatrician Susan Kurrle that Nowland displayed behaviours consistent with having moderate to severe dementia, which would have impacted her ability to comply with instructions.
Hofner told the court that Nowland appeared to not have any intent to put down the knife. Asked by Hatfield if Nowland would have put it down had they waited long enough, Hofner responded: “Possibly … but how long would we have had to wait?”
Hofner agreed under cross-examination that she had determined that “some sort of physical action” needed to be taken after verbal requests did not work. She also said that the sedative the paramedics had prepared could not be administered to Nowland until she was disarmed.
The second attending paramedic, Kingsley Peter Newman, also appeared before the court as a witness on Thursday.
He said that when the emergency responders and staff had been walking around the nursing home looking for Nowland, they found Nowland had “discarded” one of two knives she was carrying.
Newman said after Nowland was tasered, she quickly developed a haematoma to her head that was of concern, and displayed other symptoms which indicated a “significant” brain bleed.
The trial, before Justice Ian Harrison, continues.
