LAWYERS FOR THE family of a 95-year-old great-grandmother who died after being tasered by Australian police have today said they are suing the state government.
Clare Nowland, who suffered from dementia, died 24 May – a week after a state police officer shot her with an electronic stun gun at her nursing home in southern New South Wales.
“A civil claim has been brought,” the family’s lawyer, Sam Tierney, told AFP.
The suit against the New South Wales government seeks damages on behalf of Clare Nowland’s estate for alleged battery and assault, he said.
“The family doesn’t want to make any comment at this time given the ongoing criminal process,” Tierney added.
A 33-year-old senior police constable has been charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and common assault, over the incident.
He is due to face court on 6 September.
Officers had been called to Yallambee Lodge nursing home in southern New South Wales by staff who told them that a woman was “armed with a knife”.
Police say they urged Nowland to drop a serrated steak knife before she moved towards them “at a slow pace” with her walking frame, prompting one officer to fire his taser at her.
A pre-trial conference for the civil case has been scheduled for 24 August at Bega District Court, court documents showed.
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