If his appeal is successful, the case could return to court for a trial, which was previously avoided when he confessed to carrying out the hate-driven shooting in March 2020.

On Monday, Tarrant provided testimony concerning his mental state at the time of his guilty plea, marking the first occasion he has spoken at length in public since he broadcasted the 2019 massacre live on Facebook.

Originating from Australia, the self-proclaimed white supremacist relocated to New Zealand with the intent to execute the massacre, meticulously planning every detail.

He accumulated a significant number of semi-automatic weapons, took measures to evade detection, and authored an extensive manifesto. In March 2019, he traveled from Dunedin to Christchurch and launched an attack on two mosques.

The assault resulted in the deaths of 51 individuals, including a three-year-old boy, while leaving many others with severe injuries.

Regarded as one of New Zealand’s darkest days, the attack prompted institutions to take action to prevent the dissemination of Tarrant’s ideology through legal measures and a prohibition on the possession of his manifesto or the attack video.

The attack was considered one of New Zealand’s darkest days and institutions have sought to curb the spread of Tarrant’s message through legal orders and a ban on possession of his manifesto or video of the attack.

Monday’s hearing took place under tight security constraints that severely limited who could view Tarrant’s evidence, which included some reporters and those hurt or bereaved in the massacre.

Tarrant, who wore a white button-down shirt and black-rimmed glasses and had a shaved head, spoke on video from a white-walled room in prison.

Answering questions from a Crown lawyer and from lawyers representing him, Tarrant, 35, said his mental health had deteriorated due to conditions in prison, where he was held in solitary confinement with limited reading material or contact with other prisoners.

By the time he pleaded guilty, Tarrant said he was suffering from “nervous exhaustion” and uncertainty about his identity and beliefs and that he had admitted to the crimes a few months before his trial was due to begin because there was “little else I could do,” he told the court.

Crown lawyers say no evidence of serious mental illness

Crown lawyer Barnaby Hawes suggested to Tarrant during questioning that the Australian man had other options.

He could have requested a delay in his trial date on mental health grounds or could have proceeded to trial and defended himself, Hawes said.

Hawes also put to Tarrant that there was little evidence in the documentation of his behavior by mental health experts and prison staff that he was in any kind of serious mental crisis. Tarrant suggested that signs of mental illness he displayed hadn’t been recorded and that at times he had sought to mask them.

“I was definitely doing everything possible to come across as confident, assured, mentally well,” he told the court.

Tarrant’s behavior “reflected the political movement I’m a part of,” he added. “So I always wanted to put on the best front possible.”

He agreed that he had had access to legal advice throughout the court process. Tarrant’s current lawyers have been granted name suppression because they feared representing him would make them unsafe.

The appeal outcome is due later

Bids to appeal convictions or sentences in New Zealand must be made within 20 working days.

Tarrant was about two years late in seeking an appeal, filing documents with the court in September 2022.

He told the court on Monday that his bid had been late because he hadn’t had access to the information required to make it.

The hearing is due to run for the rest of the week but the judges are expected to release their decision at a later date.

If they reject Tarrant’s attempt to have his guilty pleas discarded, a later hearing will focus on his bid to appeal his sentence.