The Christchurch mosque shooter is seeking leave from the Court of Appeal to be allowed to appeal his conviction and sentence. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The Christchurch mosque shooter is seeking leave from the Court of Appeal to be allowed to appeal his conviction and sentence. Photo / Mark Mitchell
An expert in solitary confinement has challenged evidence that a deterioration in the Christchurch mosque shooter’s mental state while isolated in prison affected his ability to enter guilty pleas.
Dr James Ogloff told the Court of Appeal that a psychologist and a psychiatrist who assessed the convicted terrorist Brenton Tarrantin 2019 and 2020 noted some change in his mental state, but concluded it wasn’t dramatic or enough to affect his ability to enter guilty pleas in March 2020.
That differed from earlier evidence presented to the court by a clinical psychologist, whose name is suppressed but is referred to as Witness B, who told the court earlier that the gunman’s condition was impaired, and his ability to make informed choices when he entered his guilty pleas was impacted.
Today is the third day of the Court of Appeal hearing where the terrorist is seeking leave from the court to vacate his guilty pleas and appeal his convictions for the mass shootings at two Christchurch mosques on March 15, 2019.
Ogloff, a clinical and forensic psychologist and distinguished professor at Swinburne University in Australia, was called by the Crown to comment on Witness B’s evidence.
Brenton Tarrant gave evidence at the Court of Appeal on Monday morning. Photo / Ministry of Justice
One of his lawyers, whose name is suppressed, put it to Ogloff that his harsh prison conditions left him with no choice but to plead guilty to stop his suffering.
Ogloff responded, saying it was clear from the health assessor’s report that Tarrant understood that he would be detained for life, “so I don’t understand the logic of how pleading guilty would stop the suffering”.
And even if there was a change in his behaviour, Ogloff said Witness B appeared to give no consideration to whether this rose to the standard of being unable to plead. He also suggested it was in Tarrant’s interest to exaggerate his mental health because he had an appeal.
He was also critical of Witness B’s willingness to take the gunman’s assertions about his state of mind at the time he pleaded guilty, without looking at contemporaneous factors that may have affected his mental state.
While he acknowledged a point by Tarrant’s lawyer that Dr B hadn’t disagreed with the report’s findings in his evidence, Ogloff said he’d reached a vastly different conclusion.
Ogloff said when looking at the issue of solitary confinement, it was important to understand that it impacted people differently; institutions operated different regimes, and not all people who are placed in solitary confinement developed mental illness.
Asked by Tarrant’s lawyer whether solitary confinement could lead to someone’s loss of sense of self, which in itself could impact a person’s ability to make decisions, Ogloff explained that some people who’d spent years in solitary confinement were able to function, while others who’d spent a much shorter period of time were totally incapable.
“The crux was what was the impact on an individual at that point in time,” he said.
Al Noor mosque, pictured from South Hagley Park in Christchurch.
Tarrant was jailed for life without parole in 2020 for murdering 51 people at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques.
Yesterday, the court heard about how confined conditions he was held in, including having his phone calls recorded and monitored, being under constant video surveillance, limited access to books and activities and staff making regular observations of what he was doing.
But two lawyers who represented him said that two health assessors ruled that he was fit to plead.
They told the court they always expected him to plead guilty; it was just a matter of when. Despite this, they began preparing their case, which involved holding the Crown to proof, because they didn’t believe their client had a lawful defence to the charges that he faced.
The gunman pleaded guilty to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and a single charge of engaging in a terrorist act.
The hearing before Justices Christine French, David Collins, and Susan Thomas is set down for a week.
Catherine Hutton is an Open Justice reporter, based in Wellington. She has worked as a journalist at the Waikato Times and RNZ. Most recently she was working as a media adviser at the Ministry of Justice.
