Mosque terrorist will die in prison
But even that’s not enough punishment for you, judge tells white supremacist who slaughtered 51
THE TERRORIST who slaughtered 51 Muslims in a shooting rampage at two New Zealand mosques will die in prison, he was told yesterday.
Yet even death behind bars was not a severe enough punishment for white supremacist Brenton Tarrant, a judge declared as he handed down the most severe sentence in the country’s history.
The 29-year-old Australian murdered worshippers and wounded dozens of others in Christchurch last year, posting a ranting manifesto online and streaming the atrocity live on the internet.
Justice Cameron Mander told him: ‘Your crimes are so wicked that even if you are detained until you die it will not exhaust the requirements of punishment and denunciation.’
Tarrant sat quietly throughout the sentencing hearing that began on Monday, save to laugh at one set of grieving relatives as they described how he had devastated their lives. He said nothing in his defence, having fired his legal team when pleading guilty earlier this year.
But his arrogance was revealed when Judge Mander heard he told psychologists that only he would be able to analyse himself because professionals lacked the skills.
A report to the Christchurch High Court added that Tarrant did not want psychological help to establish why he became a mass murderer.
The former personal trainer told one psychiatrist he felt remorse for what he had done, but the professional found ‘the true depth of this was difficult to gauge’.
Prosecutor Mark Zarifeh said Tarrant now denied being racist or xenophobic, an assertion thrown out by the judge, who said the ‘inhuman’ actions had caused enormous loss and hurt and stemmed from a warped and malignant ideology.
Tarrant remained entirely self-absorbed, Judge Mander told him, adding: ‘Your focus appears to be on yourself and the position you find yourself in. As far as I can discern, you are empty of any empathy for your victims.’
Prosecutors told the court earlier that Tarrant wanted to instill fear in those he described as invaders and that he carefully planned the attacks to cause maximum carnage. ‘You committed mass murder,’ the judge said. ‘You slaughtered unarmed and defenceless people. You maimed, wounded and crippled many others.
‘Your victims include the young and the old, men, women and children.
‘You deliberately killed a three-year-old infant by shooting him in the head as he clung to the leg of his father.’ The March 2019 attacks targeted worshippers at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch. Tarrant had planned to raze the buildings and had identified a third mosque to attack but was caught by police on his way there.
He told officers he wished he had killed more.
During the four-day sentencing hearing, 90 survivors and family members recounted the horror of that day and the trauma they continue to feel.
One of those who spoke was Temel Atacocugu, who survived being shot nine times at the Al Noor mosque.
After Tarrant was given the first ever sentence of life without the possibility of parole in New Zealand, Mr Atacocugu said he felt relieved, adding: ‘Finally we can breathe freely, and we feel secure. The justice system has locked up this ideology forever.’
Tarrant, who was born in a small town in northern New South Wales, is thought to have become radicalised during seven years travelling the world from 2011.
Crucially, it appears that it was in Bulgaria that he met fanatical white supremacists who were to influence him and his unspeakable killing spree.
With Tarrant now facing solitary confinement in an Auckland prison for the rest of his life, a crowd of survivors and families gathered outside the Christchurch court hugging and singing and calling out that, despite their loss, it was they who had won in the end.
Prime minister Jacinda Ardern, who vowed never to say the gunman’s name, said after hearing of the sentences: ‘He deserves a lifetime of complete and utter silence.’
‘No empathy for your victims’
‘Finally we can breathe freely’