The terrorist convicted of murdering 51 people in a hateful massacre at two Christchurch mosques has filed an appeal claiming he only pleaded guilty under duress of torture.
Brenton Harrison Tarrant has filed the notice of appeal against his conviction and sentence at the Court of Appeal in Wellington.
The Australian immigrant used high powered weapons to murder dozens of people at Al Noor mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre on March 15, 2019.
He later pleaded guilty to 51 charges of murder, 40 charges of attempted murder and a terror-related charge. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2020 and will die behind bars.
However, his notice of appeal was made publicly available today for the first time and shows Tarrant now claims he only admitted the horrific offending “under duress of torture”.
His appeal falls outside of the usual 20 working days people convicted have to appeal to a higher court. When asked why he had filed outside of this time window, the mass murderer claimed he had a “variety of reasons”.
“Held under illegal and torturous prison conditions, necessary legal documents withheld from myself, fallout with previous lawyers, irrationality brought on through prison conditions,” his notice of appeal reads.
Asked what his grounds for appeal were, he wrote: “I only entered a guilty plea under duress through torture.”
He did not have a lawyer and was representing himself. Asked whether he would apply for legal aid, he wrote “perhaps”.
The court is yet to confirm whether his request for a hearing will be accepted.
Survivor Temel Atacocugu, who was shot nine times at Al Noor mosque, has previously called on the justice system to deal with the appeal quickly and for the public to forget the killer "forever".
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