Mosque killer’s UK links
Did gunman meet British far-Right extremists on the Europe tour that spurred attacks?
POLICE and security services believe the New Zealand mosque killer may have visited the UK during a tour of Europe two years ago which galvanised his extremism.
British investigators are looking at Brenton Tarrant’s travel history to work out his itinerary and establish if he met any farRight fanatics here during the trip.
The gunman, who killed 50 Muslims in a shooting spree at two mosques on Friday, said in a hate-filled ‘manifesto’ he posted online just before the attacks that he had planned them after his two-month travels in 2017.
He travelled to Spain and Portugal, and hired a car in eastern France, visiting war graves before possibly heading to the UK by ferry.
Sources said police were yet to find any hard proof that Tarrant, 28, had set foot in Britain, but it seemed ‘implausible’ he hadn’t.
He was not on a watch list and it is unclear if he ‘transited’ through the UK or stayed for a ‘few weeks’, but the sick ‘For Rotherham’ message scrawled on one of his ammunition clips raises the possibility he visited.
It was thought to be a reference to the child sex abuse scandal in the South Yorkshire town involving predominantly Asian men.
Tarrant, who also visited eastern Europe in 2016 and 2018 to visit the sites of a number of historic battles between Christians and Mus- lims, appeared in court in Christchurch on Saturday. As he stood in the dock charged with murder, the Australian national made a ‘white power’ gesture with a handcuffed hand.
MI5 took over the lead in fighting extreme Right-wing terrorism last autumn amid mounting fears white supremacists are increasing their efforts on Britain’s streets. The threat has soared over the past few years and it is now viewed as seriously as terrorism related to Northern Ireland or Islamic extremism.
Following Friday’s attack on the Masjid Al Noor and Linwood mosques a number of individuals in the UK used social media to express support for the Christchurch gunman.
Over the weekend four people were arrested for offensive posts or insults in response to the attacks. On Saturday, concerned Facebook users highlighted a post from a ‘Robert Jones’ which praised Tarrant.
The racist message appeared to include a reference to the One Love Manchester concert organised by singer Ariana Grande following Salman Abedi’s deadly bomb attack on her 2017 gig in the city. One user responded: ‘Robert Jones from Oldham thinks it’s brilliant killing kids... can we make him go viral please.’
Detectives arrested a 24-year-old man in the Oldham area on suspicion of sending malicious communications. He was later bailed.
In nearby Rochdale, a 38-year- old woman was arrested for a racially aggravated public order offence following comments made online about the New Zealand attacks. In the same town, a man of 33 and a woman aged 34 were also arrested after reports of a taxi driver being abused and threatened by members of the public making reference to the attacks.
And a school in Doncaster was forced to distance itself from a dinner lady, who allegedly responded to images of terrified worshippers by posting: ‘How does it feel being on the receiving end?’
Facebook said it removed 1.5million copies of Tarrant’s video of his attacks within 24 hours of the shooting and said it was working to remove content showing support for the shooting.
But Wrexham MP Ian Lucas, who sits on the Commons’ digital and culture committee, said social media companies needed to do more to tackle offensive content.
‘They have created a platform which creates unprecedented challenges which they can’t control fast enough,’ he said.
‘Unprecedented challenges’
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