The mass murderer, Australian-born Brenton Tarrant, was sentenced to life in prison without parole today (August 27).
On March 15, 2019, the white supremacist went on a rampage and massacred 51 Muslims, most of them at Al Noor Mosque in Christ Church.
The victims included men, women and children.
He had gone fully prepared to cause maximum casualties.
Armed with assault rifles, he had several magazines ready to load when he had exhausted the one he fired.
The attacks on the two mosques occurred on Friday when they were full of worshippers.
This hate-filled man knew exactly what he was doing.
In sentencing him to life in prison without parole, Judge Cameron Mander described his actions as “wicked” and “inhuman”.
Tarrant’s “warped” ideology and “base hatred” led the Australian white supremacist to murder defenceless men, women and children in New Zealand’s worst terror attack, said the Judge.
“Your crimes are so wicked, that even if you are detained until you die it will not exhaust the requirements of punishment and denunciation,” Judge Mander said as he announced a sentence that is a New Zealand legal first.
“The judge solemnly read out the names of those murdered in a livestreamed rampage and recounted in forensic detail how Tarrant executed the wounded as they pleaded for help on March 15 last year,” the French news agency, AFP reported today.
“It was brutal and beyond callous. Your actions were inhuman,” the judge said, pointing out that Tarrant deliberately attacked Friday prayers to maximise casualties.
The terrorist had made no attempt to conceal his hate-filled ideology.
Before going on his murderous rampage last year, Tarrant had uploaded a manifesto on social media.
He expressed admiration for the Norwegian terrorist Anders Breivik.
Others that inspired him included the American Islamophobe Pamela Geller, and British Tommy Robinson.
These last two have close links with the Zionists that also support the hate-spewing Islamophobes financially.
Geller has appeared at events organized by the Jewish Defence League in Canada (see here and here).
At Tarrant’s trial, Crown prosecutor Barnaby Hawes said the accused had told police he wanted to create fear among the small Muslim minority in New Zealand.
The terrorist had also expressed regret for not taking more lives and revealed that he had intended to burn down the Al Noor mosque after the shootings, Hawes said.
“He intended to instill fear into those he described as invaders, including the Muslim population or more generally non-European immigrants,” Hawes said.
Among his victims was three-year-old Mucaad Ibrahim who was clinging to his father’s leg.
Tarrant fired “two precisely aimed shots” at the child, Hawes said.
Ibrahim was the youngest victim of the shootings.
The shooter spent years purchasing high-powered firearms, researched mosque layouts by flying a drone over his primary target, and timed his attacks to maximise casualties, the prosecutor said.
While most of Tarrant’s victims were at Al Noor mosque, he killed seven people at a second mosque before being detained en route to a third.
Before his sentencing, there was heart-wrenching testimony of survivors and relatives of the victims’ families.
Throughout the four-day hearing, Tarrant retained an impassive demeanour.
Even at his sentencing, he showed little emotion.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who was praised for her compassionate and decisive response to the shootings, also welcomed the sentence.
“The trauma of March 15 is not easily healed but today I hope is the last where we have any cause to hear or utter the name of the terrorist behind it,” she said.
“His deserves to be a lifetime of complete and utter silence.”