A judge’s decision to spare a police officer jail for killing a frail, confused elderly woman with a Taser shot has been slammed as a “slap on the wrist” by her tearful family.

Former senior constable Kristian James Samuel White walked stone-faced through a scrum of media as he left the NSW Supreme Court today.

Minutes earlier, he was given a two-year, good-behaviour bond and ordered to perform community service after killing 95-year-old Clare Nowland in the southern NSW town of Cooma.

The 35-year-old fired his Taser at her after being called to the Yallambee Lodge aged-care home in the early hours of May 17, 2023.

Nowland’s eldest son Michael said her family – many of whom were fighting back tears after White avoided jail – were finding it hard to process the court’s decision.

“Obviously, it was very disappointing,” he said.

“A slap on the wrist for someone who’s killed our mother – it’s very, very hard to process that.”

All the family wanted was justice and fairness, Michael Nowland said.

In handing down his decision, Justice Ian Harrison found White made a “terrible mistake” but his crime fell at the lower end of seriousness compared to other manslaughter cases.

The use of the stun gun after a few minutes of trying to disarm Nowland was unlawful, dangerous and resulted from White either misreading or misunderstanding the situation, the judge said.

“A frail and confused 95-year-old woman in fact posed nothing that could reasonably be described as a threat of any substance,” he told the packed courtroom.

Nowland was holding a knife while using a walking frame and had been ignoring attempts by staff to disarm her before she was shot with the weapon.

The officer said “nah, bugger it” before firing the Taser’s barbs at her chest, causing her to fall and strike her head.

The great-grandmother suffered a bleed on the brain and died in hospital a week later.

Justice Harrison said Nowland’s death was a serious event, acknowledging the grief and anger her family felt while struggling to cope with the enormity of her passing.

“The complete and utter frustration and despair exhibited by her family in the circumstances is easy to understand when things could have so easily been handled better,” he said.

However, White was only caught up in the incident as a police officer who had been lawfully called to the care facility, the judge said.

“He was required to resolve the situation … and could not have chosen to do nothing,” he said.

White stood expressionless as his sentence was handed down and did not say anything to reporters outside court before he was bundled into a car and driven off.

He will have to perform 425 hours of community service as part of his two-year community corrections order.

In a letter to Nowland’s family provided to the court, White expressed his regret.

“I take full responsibility for my actions – I felt and still feel horrible for what happened,” he wrote.

“I do not expect you to take my apology as a request for forgiveness and I understand that you suffer greatly.”

Both White and the Director of Public Prosecutions could appeal the sentence, while the former officer has scope to challenge the jury’s guilty verdict.

The 35-year-old has since been diagnosed with major depressive disorder and post-traumatic-stress disorder and will have to move from the small town of Cooma because of the anger against him in the community.

White was removed from the force in December after the guilty verdict, but he has launched legal action for a review of that decision.

UNSW criminology expert Helen Gibbon said it was very rare for Australian police officers to face prosecution or conviction for killing a person in the line of duty.

A willingness from agencies such as the DPP to prosecute and juries to convict police officers was historically lacking, the associate professor told AAP.