Rachel Lang
The Australian police officer responsible for tasering a 95-year-old woman has been suspended from duty with pay.
Cooma resident Clare Nowland was brutally tasered during an incident in her nursing home earlier this month.
She hit her head and has now been put on end-of-life care in hospital
New South Wales Police said in a statement: "Today (Tuesday 23 May 2023) a 33-year-old senior constable attached to Monaro Police District was suspended from duty with pay.
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"As investigations continue into the critical incident, further updates will be provided."
Nowland, who walks using a frame, was hit with the taser at Yallambee Lodge, an elderly people’s care home in Cooma, by police on May 17.
The mother of eight had reportedly failed to put down a steak knife.
After she was tasered, Nowland then fell, hit her head on the floor and suffered critical injuries, before being taken to Cooma District Hospital.
Her family has been around her bedside, with a representative for Nowland's relatives saying they don't expect her to survive.
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The incident was captured on the body-worn camera of the officers involved, which will now be used in an investigation.
New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb said she does not plan to watch the footage back before all of the statements and other evidence are reviewed.
Speaking to Sydney’s 2GB radio on Monday, Webb said: “It may be the case in the future where I have to make a determination based on a brief of evidence, without being tainted by having seen a part of the brief without context.
"It’s important that we follow a process. I will make my determination impartially."
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The police officer's suspension comes hours after another NSW family released footage of the moment an elderly woman was double-handcuffed by six police officers in an aged care home in 2020.
While there is no suggestion the police officers involved in that incident were the same in Cooma, the family of then 81-year-old Rachel Grahame believes New South Wales Police have 'have learned nothing'.
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Six police were seen on camera double-handcuffing Grahame at St Basil’s aged care home in Randwick after she took a lanyard and an electronic device from a staff desk.
Grahame's family sued NSW police over the incident and were paid compensation in 2021.
But, in the wake of Clare Rowland's savage tasering in the NSW town of Cooma, Grahame's family chose to make the 2020 footage public.
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NSW Police were approached for comment.