New Zealand / Christchurch Terror Attacks

Christchurch terror attack: Families to get more information about victims' deaths

17:21 pm on 6 January 2021

The chief coroner is set to release information about how the victims of the 2019 Christchurch mosque attack died.

People gather outside Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch. (File photo). Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook

Judge Deborah Marshall wrote to victims families last month to offer access to as much information as they want.

She said together with the police she would make two packages of information available to families.

One with a general level of detail and another with more specific information about how a particular person died.

The information will include photos of the victims as they entered the mosque for prayers on 15 March, a diagram of where each victim was when they died and a forensic pathologist report.

Judge Marshall said families could write to her to request any further details or to highlight any issues which they consider had not been resolved by the Royal Commission of Inquiry report.

"This is the purpose of the Coroners Court - to establish the facts of how someone died and, where possible, to make recommendations for how similar deaths could be prevented in the future.

"If there are any issues that cannot be resolved through this information sharing process, an inquest may follow. I will inform families of this decision when the time comes," she said.