New Zealand / Canterbury

Accused mosque gunman abandons bid to move trial out of Christchurch

11:05 am on 3 October 2019

Brenton Tarrant has withdrawn his application to have his trial moved to another city.

Photo: RNZ / Simon Rogers

The decision was announced at the High Court in Christchurch this morning where about 80 members of the Muslim community had packed the gallery.

Today's hearing was scheduled to take a number of hours, but wrapped up in about 10 minutes after it was announced the change of venue application was being withdrawn.

The 28-year-old had pleaded not guilty to 51 charges of murder, 40 of attempted murder and one of terrorism relating to the 15 March attacks on two Christchurch mosques.

He appeared via an audio-visual link from a room at Auckland's Paremoremo maximum security prison, where he had been held in solitary confinement for almost six months.

He was dressed in a grey sweatshirt.

When asked by the judge, Justice Mander, if he could hear what was being said, he replied "Oh yeh, I can hear you."

The Australian is next due in court for a callover on 12 December.