The Department of Public Prosecutions has lost its appeal against the sentencing of former police officer Kristian White, who was given a two-year community corrections order and 425 hours of community service after being found guilty of the 95-year-old aged care resident's manslaughter.

The DPP, led by Director Sally Dowling SC, appealed the sentence on the grounds it was "manifestly inadequate", but Chief Justice Andrew Bell, Justice Anthony Payne and Justice Natalie Adams, of the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal, disagreed.

“Conviction of the offence of manslaughter did not, in the exceptional circumstances of this case, mandate a custodial sentence,” their judgment said.

“At first blush, the sentence imposed on the Respondent may be considered to be lenient but, as these reasons have been at pains to point out, the fact that an appellate court may consider a sentence to be lenient does not render it manifestly inadequate or plainly unjust.”

White, 34, was convicted of manslaughter in November 2024 after using a Taser on Ms Nowland at Yallambee Lodge, Cooma, 114km south of Canberra, on 17 May 2023. Ms Nowland, who weighed just 43kg at the time and used a walking frame, suffered a head injury in the fall and died in hospital a week later.

White was sentenced in March this year, but the sentence attracted controversy after he avoided jail. He has completed 120 hours of his community service.