95-year-old Clare Nowland deserved care.

In 2008, great-grandmother Clare Nowland was filmed for a feel-good segment by the ABC when she decided to go skydiving for her 80th birthday.

Her children had paid for the trip after she requested the adventure. In the footage, she can be seen with her cropped white hair, wearing a purple and pink skydiving suit, smiling as she sits strapped to an instructor in the plane.

The pair then leap from the aircraft, descending safely to the ground, where they're met by cheers and laughs from Nowland's family.

Watch: Clare Nowland's family speak of their grief. Post continues below.

At age 95, Clare was living out her twilight years at Yallambee Lodge aged care home.

On May 17, she wandered away from the facility in the southern NSW town of Cooma.

Knowing Clare suffered from dementia symptoms, concerned staff called the police and ambulance services.

When officers arrived on the scene, they found her holding a serrated steak knife that she had taken from the Yallambee Lodge aged care home.

Clare, who weighed 43 kilograms, was allegedly using a walking frame, holding the knife as she slowly approached police.

Senior Constable Kristian James Samuel White, who has spent over a decade working for the police force, then tasered the great-grandmother, causing her to fall and hit her head on the ground.

She was left with critical injuries, including a fractured skull and brain bleed. She died in hospital a week later.

Senior Constable Whit was charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, and common assault.

In video footage played at his NSW Supreme Court trial, the 34-year-old could be heard saying "nah, bugger it" before shooting Clare with his stun gun.

After the eight-day trial, the jury deliberated for 20 hours, before returning with a guilty verdict of manslaughter.

Shortly after the incident, NSW Police were accused of an alleged "cover-up" as per Australian Associated Press (AAP), after documents revealed mention of paramedics, a knife and a Taser were removed in their first statement about the tasering of Nowland.

A 71-word press release, approved by Police Commissioner Karen Webb, was issued 12 hours after Nowland was injured but provided little detail about her "interaction with police".

Documents obtained by AAP under Freedom of Information laws say the statement was published after police reportedly slashed a much-longer draft that included several key details, including the use of the Taser.

Police did not publicly comment on the incident again until after multiple media reports emerged more than 36 hours after the tasering.

In a press conference days later, Assistant Commissioner Peter Cotter detailed how Nowland had a serrated steak knife in a small treatment room when she moved slowly towards officers and was tasered.

"She had a walking frame, but she had a knife," he said.

Commissioner Webb later defended the decision to omit mention of the Taser in the first press release. She denied police were hiding anything, saying the Nowland family deserved to learn about the incident via police, not media reports.

Former police minister Paul Toole in parliament alleged police had "covered up" the Taser use and urged his successor to take action. Police Minister Yasmin Catley said she was not aware of the draft press release and said the report should be taken to the police watchdog.

NSW Council for Civil Liberties president Josh Pallas earlier said that police should not be using Tasers on vulnerable people experiencing dementia or a mental health crisis.

Dementia Australia also spoke out, saying the organisation had received calls and emails from family members and carers expressing their anger at the treatment of people living with dementia in Australia and reporting their sadness for Nowland and her family.

This article was originally published on May 19, 2023, and has since been updated with new information. - With AAP.

Feature Image: Facebook.

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