White supremacist killer Brenton Tarrant fails to overturn guilty pleas for New Zealand mosque attacks

The man jailed for life after murdering 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand has lost an attempt to withdraw his guilty pleas.

Brenton ‌Tarrant, an Australian national, was sentenced to life behind bars without parole over the attack in Christchurch in 2019, the country's deadliest mass ‌shooting.

On Thursday, three judges at the Court of Appeal dismissed his claims that harsh prison conditions allegedly affected his ⁠mental state and his admission of terrorism, murder and attempted murder charges was not voluntary.

His attempt to withdraw his guilty pleas and seek a trial was "utterly devoid of merit", they wrote.

The terrorist, who is now 35, drove to two Christchurch mosques and opened fire with semi-automatic weapons during Friday prayers.

His guilty pleas in March 2020 brought relief to bereaved families and survivors of the attack, who feared he would use a public trial to air his hateful views.

‌Tarrant "was not coerced or pressured in any way" to plead guilty, the judges said in their ruling.

In fact, they added, he rejected his lawyers' offer to attempt to negotiate away the terrorism charge because he wanted to be known as a terrorist.

What the judges said

At the appeal court's five-day hearing in February, ‌Tarrant argued his admissions of guilt were provoked by "irrationality" induced by poor mental health, which led him to desert his racist views for a time.

But the judges concluded that his claims of mental illness were not supported by evidence, and he had been fit to plead guilty.

"He endeavoured to mislead us about his state of mind in a weak attempt to advance an appeal in circumstances where all other evidence demonstrated that he made an informed and totally rational decision to plead guilty," the judges wrote in Thursday's ruling.

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The court's decision also revealed that Tarrant attempted to abandon his appeal shortly after making his case.

The judges rejected that bid too, writing that the case was "of significant public interest and should be finally determined".

The court allowed him to abandon the appeal of his prison sentence, which was scheduled to be heard later this year.

Tarrant's lawyers, who he has since fired, said he had wanted to argue during a trial that he had been defending New Zealand from immigrants.

Such a defence is not allowed under New Zealand law, a fact that the judges suggested had influenced his decision to plead guilty.

They wrote that Tarrant hadn't disputed the facts of the case against him, which they described as "overwhelming" and "beyond dispute", including footage of the attack, which he had filmed himself and livestreamed on the internet.

(c) Sky News 2026: White supremacist killer Brenton Tarrant fails to overturn guilty pleas for New Zealand