The gunman of the Christchurch mosque attacks has chosen to represent himself at his sentencing next month.
An armed police officer outside Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch in April last year. Photo: AFP
In March, Brenton Tarrant made a late guilty plea to 51 charges of murder, 40 of attempted murder and one under the Terrorism Suppression Act.
He is due to be sentenced on 24 August.
Brenton Tarrant. Photo: Supplied
Tarrant appeared via audio-visual link (AVL) in Christchurch High Court this morning where he waived his rights to a lawyer to represent himself for sentencing.
His previous lawyers Shane Tait and Jonathan Hudson withdrew their application to represent him.
In court, Justice Cameron Mander appointed a lawyer for standby counsel, should Tarrant decide to be legally represented on the day.
Linwood mosque attendee Abdul Aziz, who threw an eftpos machine at the gunman during the attacks, said he would be relieved when the gunman's sentencing was over.
Aziz said he wanted the nightmare to be over, many of the victims wanted closure and were struggling to combat symptoms that were only hitting them now.