A New Zealand court sentenced a man who killed 51 Muslim worshippers in New Zealand’s deadliest shooting to life in prison without parole, the first time such a sentence has been handed down in the country.
Brenton Tarrant, a 29-year-old Australian, admitted to 51 charges of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one charge of committing a terrorist act during the 2019 shooting rampage at two Christchurch mosques which he livestreamed on Facebook.
High Court Judge Cameron Mander said in Christchurch that a finite term would not be sufficient. “Your crimes, however, are so wicked that even if you are detained until you die it will not exhaust the requirements of punishment and denunciation,” said Mander in handing down the sentence. “As far as I can discern, you are empty of any empathy for your victims,” he said.
Judge Mander said that behind Tarrant’s “warped” ideology was a “base hatred” that led him to attack defenceless men, women and children last year in New Zealand’s worst terror attack.
“It is incumbent on the court to respond in a way that decisively rejects such vicious malevolence,” Mander said as he announced a sentence unprecedented in New Zealand legal history.
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.
Tarrant, a white supremacist who represented himself during his trial, said through a lawyer in court on Thursday that he did not oppose the prosecution’s application for a life without parole sentence.
It is for the very first time a sentence of such a degree has been handed down in New Zealand. Tarrant, through Crown-appointed counsel Pip Hall QC, did not oppose life without parole.
Mander, who delivered the sentence, asked the gunman if he wished to address the court before sentence was imposed. “No, thank you,” he answered in an even and formal tone.
The judge said Tarrant had failed in his aim of promoting right-wing extremism as he gunned down victims in cold blood but the New Zealand Muslim community had still paid a terrible price.
“It was brutal and beyond callous. Your actions were inhuman,” the judge said.
Tarrant seemed unfazed by the sentence, and remained expressionless during his interaction with the judge. The Australian waived his right to make any sentencing submissions, but instructed a standby lawyer to tell the court that he did not oppose a sentence of life without parole.
Tarrant, a 29-year-old Australian national who also believed in the ideology of white supremacy, sent down shivers across the world community when he went on a rampage massacaring 51 worshippers during Friday prayers in two Christchurch mosques in New Zealand by spraying bullets on them for 20 minutes
