Geriatrician Susan Kurrle, who never met Nowland but reviewed her medical records, gave evidence the 95-year-old was prescribed anti-psychotic medication risperidone in late April 2023 “to help her aggressive behaviour”.
The court has heard that Nowland was not formally diagnosed with dementia. Looking at the records, Kurrle said: “There were hints all the way through these notes.”
She said people with dementia can say inappropriate things and exhibit unusual behaviours, such as going into other residents’ rooms.
Residents saw Nowland holding knives
The court heard about 3am on May 17, 2023, Nowland wheeled her walker into the kitchen and obtained two steak knives and a jar of prunes before entering the bedrooms of other residents, including a 90-year-old man named Kevin, who has since died.
In Kevin’s statement, read by the prosecutor, he said he was woken by a light and saw Nowland with her walker and “two plastic-handled steak knives in her right hand”.
Kevin said she sat at the foot of his bed, and he told her “it wasn’t her room” and put his dressing gown on. He said she moved towards an external door, but he told her “it was too cold and wet outside”.
He said a nurse helped to remove Nowland, and while it was not the first time she had done this, she “has never been threatening”, and he “didn’t think anything of her being in my room this time”.
“I have never had issues with Clare in the past … I’ve helped her around the yard and walked with her,” he said. “I wasn’t scared that she had them [the knives] because she was holding them whilst holding her walker.”
The court heard that Nowland then moved inside a room belonging to an 84-year-old man named Warren.
In a statement, also read by the prosecutor, Warren said he woke to the sound of “shuffling”, but it was dark, and he thought it was a carer. He said two workers came in and started speaking with someone, saying, “Come on, Clare, back to your room. You’re upsetting Warren.”
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He said the night nurse and carers “tried approaching Clare on a number of occasions” and “would take a step towards Clare before taking a quick step back”. He said this “went on for about two hours”, and that over the foot of his bed, he “saw a knife in Clare’s hand when she raised it in the air”, with a three- to four-inch steel blade.
Warren said once he “saw there was a knife and Clare threatening with it”, he was helped into his jacket and sat in the loungeroom before a nurse later told him Clare was not in his room.
“I figured if Clare wasn’t in my room, it was safe to go back to bed,” he said. “I went back to bed and back to sleep. I don’t know what happened to Clare after she left my room.”
The trial continues.
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