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