The white supremicist who gunned down Muslims at two Christchurch mosques last year could become the first person sentenced by a New Zealand court to life imprisonment without parole.

Sentencing for Brenton Tarrant began on Monday, at the Christchurch High Court where the Australian, 29, pleaded guilty to 51 charges of murder, 40 charges of attempted murder, and one charge of terrorism. The minimum sentence for murder is life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 10 years.

He stormed Christchurch’s Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre armed with semi-automatic rifles on 15 March last year, broadcasting his shooting sprees live on social media. Prior to the attacks, Tarrant circulated a now-banned manifesto outlining his motivation: to spark fear in non-European migrant communities.

On Monday, survivors described to court the gruesome images of bullet-ridden friends and sounds of machine gun fire that continue to haunt them. They spoke of ongoing pain, psychological trauma, and financial uncertainty. Relatives of the slain told court about those lost and their own shattered futures. 

Maysoon Salama, whose son Ata Elayyan - a futsal goalkeeper - died in the attacks, spoke directly to Tarrant at court. 
“I can’t forgive you,” she said. 

“You shattered so many dreams. You terrorised the whole of New Zealand and saddened the world … But if you thought you could break us, you failed miserably.”

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