“The family will take some time to come to terms with the jury’s confirmation that Clare’s death at the hands of a serving NSW police officer was a criminal and unjustified act,” they said.

White closed his eyes as the verdict was delivered. He did not comment as he left court hand-in-hand with his fiancee and was bundled into a car.

NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb is due to address the media at 4pm on Wednesday.

The incident

Nurse Rosaline Baker gave evidence she had been alerted by a resident at 3.10am to Nowland standing in the corridor, wearing her pink pyjamas, holding two steak knives and a jug of prunes. She said the 95-year-old then moved in and out of the bedrooms of four residents with the knives.

White, his colleague – then-acting sergeant Jessica Pank – and two paramedics responded to a triple-zero call at 4.08am from the nurse reporting a “very aggressive resident” raising “two little knives”.

Before their arrival, another worker said Nowland “stood up and threw a knife” at her, but it landed on the floor.

At 5.07am, Nowland was found sitting with her walker in a treatment room inside the administration building, still holding the other knife.

The encounter that followed lasted two to three minutes and was captured on CCTV and body-worn cameras. Nowland was repeatedly asked to stay seated and drop the knife.

Pank gave evidence that she had tried to kick the wheel of Nowland’s walker as she moved slowly towards the door, but she thought she “was going to be stabbed” as Nowland was “making stabbing motions”.

White told Nowland they were “not playing this game” and “not wielding knives in here”. He raised his Taser and used the warning arc, telling Nowland, “you keep coming, you’re going to get Tased”.

“Stop, just, nah, bugger it,” White said, then Tasered Nowland. “Got her. Go, grab it, grab it, grab it.”

Paramedic Kingsley Newman said Nowland was left with the probes of the Taser lodged in her pyjamas, a burn mark, a five- to six-centimetre hematoma – blood pooled under the skin – and facial droop “indicating a pretty significant brain bleed”.

The trial

The Crown alleged White committed manslaughter either by criminal negligence or by an unlawful and dangerous act, and that his use of force was “utterly unnecessary”.

Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield, SC, told the jury White’s use of “nah, bugger it” before he fired the weapon was “completely inconsistent with it being to prevent an imminent, violent confrontation”.

“You might understand that to mean he was fed up, impatient, not prepared to wait any longer,” Hatfield said.

White’s barrister, Troy Edwards, SC, submitted White’s use of the Taser was not disproportionate to the risk, and he had “perceived a legitimate threat”.

Edwards said Nowland “had demonstrated repeatedly over two hours that she was not putting that knife down voluntarily”, and efforts to diffuse the threat including negotiation had failed.

Edwards said White, Pank and paramedic Anna Hofner said words to the effect of “stop, stay seated” to Nowland 20 times during the body-worn video, and “drop the knife” or “put down the knife” 21 times.

“He ran out of options, and he decided to deploy his Taser,” the barrister said.

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White gave evidence he felt his actions were “justified”, that Nowland was “not the frailest I’ve seen”, he did not think she would be seriously injured, and hoped she would fall onto her walker. He said he was “upset and devastated” that she died.

Nowland and her family

The court heard Nowland, at autopsy, weighed 47.5 kilograms and was 1.54 metres tall.

Nowland was not formally diagnosed with dementia. However, geriatrician Susan Kurrle reviewed her records and believed she had moderate to moderately severe frontotemporal dementia. Nowland was prescribed antipsychotic medication in the weeks before her death, following incidents including becoming stuck in a tree and ramming a carer with her walker.

Multiple members of her family attended White’s trial, and gasped or wiped tears from their eyes as the confronting body-worn footage of her Tasering was shown.

Nowland’s daughter Lesley Lloyd, who visited “every opportunity” she could, spoke of her mother’s love for golf and her charity involvement. The family kept vigil by Nowland’s bedside until her death.

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