New Zealand mosque gunman sentenced to life without parole

CHRISTCHURCH: New Zealand mosque gunman Brenton Tarrant was sentenced to life in prison without parole Thursday for the massacre of 51 Muslim worshippers, with a judge calling him “wicked” and “inhuman”.

Judge Cameron 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.

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 — a 29-year-old Australian white supremacist — sparked global revulsion on March 15, 2019 when he rampaged through two Christchurch mosques for 20 minutes during Friday prayers.

He had admitted 51 charges of murder, 40 of attempted murder and one of terrorism over the attacks, after reversing an initial not-guilty plea.

Crown prosecutor Mark Zarifeh said the atrocity was “without comparison in New Zealand’s criminal history”.

Zarifeh said life behind bars was “the only proper sentencing option” for Tarrant.

“No minimum period is sufficiently long to satisfy sentencing objectives given the gravity of the offending and the devastating loss of life and injury,” he said.

Throughout the sentencing, Tarrant remained impassive as the court heard harrowing testimony from dozens of his victims and their families.