Mass shooter who killed 51 Muslims in New Zealand blames prison conditions for guilty plea in bid to overturn conviction

Brenton Tarrant, 35, appeared in court in Wellington via a video link on Monday to give evidence as part of an attempt to reverse his guilty pleas and get a new trial.

The Australian national is responsible for the deadliest mass shooting in New Zealand’s history, after he attacked two mosques in Christchurch during Friday prayers using military-style semi-automatic weapons in 2019.

He filmed the killings with a head-mounted camera and live-streamed them on Facebook.

Tarrant previously admitted to the murder of 51 people, attempted murder of another 40 people and one charge of terrorism.

But today, he claimed he "did not have the mind-frame or mental health required to be making informed decisions at that time."

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He said: "I think the issue is, did I really know what I wanted to do or what would be a good idea? No, I didn't actually.

"I was making choices, but they were not choices made ‍voluntarily and they were not choices made rationally due to the (prison) conditions."

The Court of Appeal will now check if Tarrant was incapable of making rational decisions when he entered his pleas "as a result of the conditions ‌of his imprisonment, which he says were torturous and inhumane", court documents show.

During his four-day sentencing hearing in 2020, 90 survivors and family members recounted the horror of the attacks and the trauma they continue to feel.

Others called him a "monster, a coward and a rat." Some sung verses from the Quran or addressed him in Arabic, while a few spoke softly and said they forgave him.

He was sentenced to life in prison without parole, the first person in the country's history to receive this sentence.

In imposing the historic sentence, Judge Cameron Mander said that the white supremacist's crimes were so wicked that a lifetime in jail could not begin to atone for them.

The judge branded his actions "inhuman", adding that he had "showed no mercy".

He said they had caused enormous loss and hurt, and stemmed from a warped and malignant ideology.

The attacks targeting people praying at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques shocked New Zealand and prompted new laws banning the deadliest types of semi-automatic weapons.

They also prompted global changes to social media protocols after the gunman livestreamed his attack on Facebook, where it was viewed by hundreds of thousands of people.