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SYDNEY, Australia — A police officer in Australia who shocked a 95-year-old nursing home resident with a Taser was found guilty of manslaughter on Wednesday.

A jury has found Senator Kristian James Samuel White guilty after 20 hours of deliberation in the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Sydney. Clare Nowland, a great-grandmother who suffered from dementia and used a walker, refused to put down the steak knife she was holding when White fired his Taser at her in May 2023.

Nowland, a resident of Yallambee Lodge, a nursing home in the town of Cooma, fell backwards after White shocked her. She hit her head and died in hospital a week later.

The extraordinary case prompted a high-level internal investigation by the New South Wales State Police. It also sparked debate about how officers in the state use Tasers, a device that prevents the use of electricity.

Police said at the time of her death that Nowland suffered her fatal injuries from hitting her head on the ground, rather than directly from the device’s debilitating electric shock.

In video footage played during the trial at the Supreme Court, 34-year-old White was heard saying “nah, donder it” before firing his weapon after officers ordered Nowland to put the knife down 21 times. White told the jury that he had been taught that anyone who handled a knife was dangerous, the Guardian reported.

But after an eight-day trial, the jury rejected arguments from White’s lawyers that his use of the Taser was a proportionate response to the threat posed by Nowland, who weighed about 100 pounds.

The prosecutor argued that White’s use of the Taser was “completely unnecessary and clearly excessive,” according to local news media.

The manslaughter charge in New South Wales carries a possible prison sentence of up to 25 years. White is out on bail.

Nowland left behind eight children, 24 grandchildren and 31 great-grandchildren, Australia’s ABC reported.