A New Zealand Court of Appeal on Thursday dismissed Brenton Tarrant’s attempt to withdraw the guilty pleas he entered after the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks.
A three-judge panel said Tarrant’s argument that harsh prison conditions had forced him to plead guilty to charges of terrorism, murder and attempted murder was without merit, calling the bid “utterly devoid of merit.” The ruling effectively ends any realistic chance of a trial on those charges.
Tarrant, a 35-year-old Australian white supremacist, drove to two Christchurch mosques in March 2019 and opened fire during Friday prayers, killing 51 worshippers and injuring dozens more. He pleaded guilty in March 2020, a decision that many victims’ families and survivors had welcomed because it spared them the trauma of a public trial that could have amplified his views.
The appeals court noted Tarrant filed his application to withdraw his pleas 505 days after the legal deadline and failed “by a considerable margin to adequately explain the extraordinarily long delay.” At a five-day hearing in February, he told judges poor mental health and a temporary change of mind had prompted him to abandon his racist beliefs and admit guilt. The panel rejected those claims, finding no corroboration from prison staff, mental health professionals or his earlier lawyers.
Judges concluded Tarrant did not meet the legal threshold for being unfit to plead guilty and wrote that he was not suffering from a mental impairment or incapacity that would have prevented a voluntary change of plea. They also said they believed he had tried to mislead the court about his state of mind to support an appeal.
The court revealed Tarrant sought to abandon his appeal shortly after presenting his case in February. The judges refused that request, saying the matter was of significant public interest and should be finally determined. Under New Zealand law, an appellant does not have an automatic right to withdraw an appeal once proceedings are under way.
Tarrant had complained about his detention conditions, saying he was isolated, under constant surveillance and had little to occupy him. The judges found that separation and monitoring were imposed for his own safety because he faced a risk of suicide or self-harm, and that the supervision was for welfare rather than coercion. They concluded he was not pressured into pleading guilty.
The court also noted Tarrant rejected his lawyers’ suggestion to try to negotiate away the terrorism charge because he wanted to be recognised as a terrorist. His previous counsel told the court he had planned to defend the attacks as protecting New Zealand from immigrants — a defence not available under New Zealand law and one the judges said likely influenced his decision to plead guilty.
Tarrant remains at Auckland Prison, where in August 2020 he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. The judges allowed him to abandon a separate appeal of that sentence, which had been scheduled for hearing in 2026. The evidence against him was overwhelming, the court said, including video he filmed and livestreamed of the attack showing his face and documents he published online setting out his racist views under his real name.
