WELLINGTON — The New Zealand Court of Appeal rejected Brenton Tarrant's bid to withdraw his guilty pleas to the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks, describing the proposed appeal as utterly devoid of merit. Tarrant had asked the court in February to allow him to challenge the pleas he entered in March 2020.

Tarrant pleaded guilty in March 2020 to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and a terrorism charge. In August 2020, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release. He had initially said he would defend the charges.

In 2022, Tarrant filed an appeal in the Court of Appeal challenging both his convictions and his sentence. The court noted that he filed his appeal 505 days after the legal deadline, and found he had failed to adequately explain the delay despite having access to lawyers.

At the hearing beginning on 9 February 2025, Tarrant said he was held in solitary confinement with limited reading material and limited contact with other prisoners. He claimed harsh prison conditions had prompted his involuntary admission to the charges.

The Court of Appeal did not accept his evidence about his mental state. The court said the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrated that he was not suffering any psychological impacts due to his prison conditions when he pleaded guilty. Experts had ruled Tarrant was fit to enter pleas. His former lawyers, psychologists and prison staff gave evidence during the hearing challenging his claims of mental health distress and harsh prison conditions.

Crown prosecutor Barnaby Hawes said Tarrant was "an unreliable witness and his narrative should be treated with caution." Hawes said the evidence of Tarrant's guilt, including his livestreaming of the attacks, was so overwhelming that a guilty verdict would be assured if the case went back to trial.

Tarrant moved to New Zealand in 2017 planning to carry out a white supremacist attack. He planned the mass shooting for months, conducted reconnaissance at the mosques, distributed a manifesto expressing his racist views, and live-streamed part of the assault on Facebook.

After the attack, Jacinda Ardern's government banned military-style semi-automatic rifles and created a firearms registry. An inquiry into the attacks is the largest coronial investigation New Zealand has seen and is still under way. In October 2025, the High Court left the door open for Tarrant to be called as a witness despite objections from survivors and families.