By Miklos Bolza

Leaving a 95-year-old great-grandmother alone in a closed room would have been better than stunning her even though she had a knife, an inquest has been told.

While there was a risk a 95-year-old with dementia could hurt herself with a knife, an inquest has heard leaving her to calm down would have been preferable to shooting her with a Taser.

Then-senior constable Kristian James Samuel White fired his weapon at the great-grandmother after being called to Yallambee Lodge nursing home at Cooma in southern NSW early on the morning of May 17, 2023.

Mrs Nowland, who had symptoms of dementia, had taken two steak knives from a kitchen area and refused to give them up.

Falling and hitting her head after being struck in the chest by the Taser’s barbs, she did not regain consciousness and died in hospital a week later after a brain bleed.

Geriatrician Susan Kurrle told an inquest into Mrs Nowland’s death attending police and paramedics could have just left her alone to calm down.

“That in this case would have been the least of all evils,” the professor said.

Mrs Nowland had not shown any prior thoughts of self-harm and aged care staff could have kept the door ajar a little to supervise, she added.

Professor Joseph Ibrahim said he would have grabbed a chair and sat in the doorway, distracting her with topics about how early in the morning it was.

He shrugged off any concerns after counsel assisting Sophie Callan SC said the 95-year-old could have thrown the knife at him.

“The likelihood that she would have been able to aim it, hit a vital spot is extraordinarily remote,” he said.

Prof Kurrle told the inquest dementia was “childhood development backwards”.

This required anyone approaching a person with dementia to do so as they would a young child – gentle, smiling, without being threatening.

At the three-day inquest, which began on Wednesday, State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan has examined systemic issues that existed prior to the tasering incident.

The focus of the evidence has been dementia care and training for aged care staff, police and ambulance officers.

Judge O’Sullivan has heard of numerous alternatives available to White and other police and paramedics attending, including contacting Mrs Nowland’s daughter Lesley Lloyd for help de-escalating the situation.

Prof Kurrle said the care offered by Yallambee Lodge staff to Mrs Nowland before her death was reasonable and appropriate.

The facility had been deemed compliant with aged care standards after a review by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission in early 2023, she said.

Mrs Nowland’s family are expected to give a statement about the 95-year-old’s passing as the inquest concludes later on Friday.

The great-grandmother’s relatives have previously expressed disappointment White did not spend a day in jail after being convicted of manslaughter by a NSW Supreme Court jury in November 2024.

He was given a two-year good behaviour bond in March 2025, a decision which was later upheld by the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal.