Why was dementia victim Clare, 95, TASERED as she hobbled slowly towards police on her zimmerframe?
A true story of absolute horror
Picture this … a 95-year-old granny suffering dementia, is leaning heavily on her zimmerframe and moving slower than a snail round a specialist care home.
Clare Newland – who once, for a few minutes, was the ‘darling’ of the Australian nation – is in the home because she is very very old indeed and suffers from dementia.
The problem is that Clare has a steak knife in her hand.
Now, look again…
Clare is lying in a pool of blood on the tiled floor, shaking and foaming at the mouth like a rabid dog shot in the outback.
She has just been tasered TWICE by police called by carers who were obviously frightened for the safety of others because of the knife.
When Clare fell to the floor with a potential 50,000 volts coursing through her frailty, she smashed her skull in.
As I write this it is unlikely that she is still alive. When she arrived in hospital it was discovered that her brain was bleeding.
The brave officers had been called to Yallambee Lodge in Cooma, New South Wales, for some reason not explained yet.
Or can there be any explanation in fact?
The early-hours incident has sparked an outcry and
the New South Wales police chief has said an investigation is under way.
Well at least Clare can rest in peace can’t she, if the police are investigating why they tasered a quite famous old lady with an average size knife in her gnarled hand.
Assistant Police Commissioner Peter Cotter told us that
two officers and care home staff tried to de-escalate the situation, before she began moving towards them – “it is fair to say at a slow pace”, he said.
But Clare was ‘armed’ with a dangerous weapon, so what else could two police officers and specialist care home staff be expected to do but taser her within a gnat’s eye of her life?
“She had a walking frame. But she had a knife,” Cotter said.
Family friend Andrew Thaler made the initial claim that Ms Nowland was struck twice – in the chest and the back – before she fell, suffering a fractured skull.
“The family are shocked, they’re confused… and the community is outraged.
“How can this happen? How do you explain this level of force? It’s absurd.”
Mr Thaler described Ms Nowland as being “a great service to the community and her church, very fondly regarded by a lot of people”.
She appeared on TV in 2008 to mark her 80th birthday by skydiving over Canberra.
The NSW Council for Civil Liberties and People with Disability Australia, said:
“She’s either one hell of an agile, fit, fast and intimidating 95-year-old woman, or there’s a very poor lack of judgement from those police officers.”
The care home, which is run by the Snowy Monaro Regional Council, has defended its response. They followed procedures.
Yallambee Lodge opened in 1995 and looks after residents with “higher needs”, according to its website.
Ms Nowland has lived at the home for more than five years,
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