Brenton Tarrant, an Australian white supremacist who murdered 51 Muslim worshippers at two Christchurch mosques in 2019, in what remains the deadliest mass shooting in New Zealand’s history, has asked the courts to discard his guilty pleas, arguing that harsh prison conditions damaged his mental health and compelled him to admit to the crimes.
Tarrant pleaded guilty in March 2020 to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one terrorism charge, and he was sentenced in August that year to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, becoming the first person under New Zealand law to receive such a sentence.
The matter has returned to court after Tarrant filed an appeal in 2022 challenging both his convictions and sentence, and the Court of Appeal is now considering whether the appeal can proceed, as it was lodged outside the statutory time limit.
During a week-long hearing in Wellington, Tarrant, now 35, gave evidence by video link and claimed that prolonged solitary confinement, limited access to reading material and minimal contact with other prisoners had caused a deterioration in his mental health.
He told the court that he was suffering what he described as nervous exhaustion when he entered his guilty pleas, and he maintained that he admitted to the charges months before trial because he believed there was no realistic alternative available to him.
Crown counsel challenged that account and argued that there was little evidence of a severe mental crisis, while also stating that Tarrant could have sought an adjournment on mental health grounds or proceeded to defend himself at trial.
Court documents indicate that the central issue before the judges is whether Tarrant was capable of making rational decisions at the time of his pleas, or whether, as he claims, the conditions of his imprisonment rendered him incapable of doing so.
If the application to vacate the guilty pleas is granted, the case will be sent back to the High Court for a full trial, but if it is declined, a separate hearing on the sentence appeal is expected later this year.
Tarrant moved to New Zealand in 2017 with the intention of carrying out a white supremacist attack, and he spent months planning the assault, conducting reconnaissance, circulating a manifesto and livestreaming part of the violence.
The attacks prompted sweeping gun law reforms under the Jacinda Ardern-led government, while a coronial inquiry, the largest in the country’s history, remains ongoing, with the possibility that Tarrant could yet be called as a witness.