NSW Police officer guilty of manslaughter granted bail after appearing in court

A New South Wales Police officer found guilty of the manslaughter of a 95-year-old great grandmother has been granted bail.

Transcript

00:00Christian White will be granted bail after being found guilty of the manslaughter of

00:07Clare Nowland when he deployed his Taser and used it on Mrs Nowland at the Yolambi Lodge

00:13in Cooma in the Snowy Mountains. That was in May 2023. He was facing the prospect of

00:19being behind bars should Justice Ian Harrison have not granted bail to him today and awaiting

00:25his sentence from a jail within NSW. However, that wasn't to be the case. Instead, Justice

00:32Ian Harrison did grant him bail and decided that he would be able to remain on bail as

00:38long as he was able to remain of good behaviour, not travel overseas and not communicate with

00:44any member or approach any member of Clare Nowland's family. I'll read directly from

00:49the judgement here. In passing these remarks, I should not want to give unwarranted hope

00:53to Mr White that he will avoid a sentence of full-time imprisonment or to cause distress

00:59or frustration to those who reasonably available and strongly held view is that nothing less

01:04than such a result would be appropriate. Now, that deals with some of the submissions that

01:09have been made by both Defence and Prosecution, Cath, so we've heard from Defence that they

01:13thought that there was a distinctive possibility that Christian White would not spend any time

01:18in jail and as such shouldn't be awaiting his sentence within jail, should be allowed

01:22to be in the public on bail, while the Prosecution said they believed it was incredibly likely

01:29that he would receive a penal sentence and as such should not be granted bail. Now, Justice

01:34Ian Harrison has essentially put those arguments to the side saying that there will be significant

01:39sentencing submissions made in February 7 next year when this matter has been adjourned

01:43to and as such he doesn't want to foreshadow them about whether bail or no bail would influence

01:50that matter, in part at least. This has been an incredibly eye-catching case. It has certainly

01:56captured the attention of the public and media in New South Wales and indeed nationally and

02:01part of that, Cath, is because of just how rare it is that a police officer would be

02:05found guilty for criminal actions while serving on duty and performing their duties and yet

02:12that is what has happened to Christian White. We know now that his employment will be dealt

02:16with next week by New South Wales Police and that is separate to this criminal matter

02:21that's dealt with under the Police Act and Karen Webb has said that she would reserve

02:25until next week to make a decision on his employment with the New South Wales Police.

02:30However, for now he remains on bail after being found guilty of manslaughter, returning

02:35to court next year in February.