An 81-year-old dementia patient was brutally double-handcuffed by police in an aged care home in 2020. Now the family have released disturbing footage of what happened.
Clare Nowland, a 95-year-old dementia patient was tasered by at an aged care home in Cooma, NSW on Wednesday morning.
Staff called police after she was found holding a steak knife, and now she is tragically receiving end of life care as a result of injuries sustained during the incident, after falling and hitting her head.
Rachel Grahame's family, the 81-year-old from 2020, are now speaking out about what really happened when she was brutally handcuffed by six officers in Randwick, Sydney.
Rachel was 81 weighing 45kg at the time of her manhandling by officers after she took a lanyard and electronic device from a staff desk.
The family sued the NSW police and were paid compensation is 2021, but have now released footage taken at the scene, as they believe Clare's treatment proved "police have learned nothing."
The footage shows the frail, elderly lady in distress screaming for "help" and branding one cop a "big bully" and a "big brute" while her arms and legs were restrained by officers with two sets of handcuffs.
She spent weeks in the hospital after being stuck in the handcuffs for over 20 minutes.
Her daughter Emma said she was speaking out now due to the Clare's incident to raise awareness about the treatment of those who "can't defend themselves."
“I’m sure that the family of Clare Nowland is feeling the same way, that they’ve done their best to try and keep her safe and it’s been the opposite of that."
“We never got an apology, we never got any acknowledgment that they had done anything wrong."
“Why isn’t there some psychiatric team that can come and help when a situation is difficult?”
She also claimed police should not be called to aged care homes to deal with dementia patients.
It was revealed by Clare's priest on Sunday night that she was not conscious.
“She looks peaceful, she’s not conscious but she certainly looks comfortable."
“They are a big family, so they’re coming in and out … but they’re speaking to Clare, they say the last of your senses to go is your hearing, so we know she can hear us."
“The thing with Clare is the dementia hadn’t completely taken hold, you could still have a conversation with her … she might get a bit confused, but that’s an age thing.”
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said the force had no intention of releasing "confronting" bodycam footage of the tasering.
She claimed it had been used as part of an investigation but it is now under care by a critical incident team and homicide squad detectives from Sydney.
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