White supremacist terrorist Brenton Tarrant can be called as a witness at the coronial inquest into the Christchurch mosque attacks.
The High Court has dismissed an application for a judicial review of deputy chief coroner Brigitte Windley's decision to call him to the second-phase inquest.
The Australian-born terrorist is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murder of 51 worshippers at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre on 15 March, 2019.
The second-phase inquest began in October last year and is examining how the terrorist came to obtain the guns used in the massacre.
It adjourned part-heard after survivors and families of the victims objected to Windley calling the terrorist as a witness.
She granted interested party status to Tarrant before the inquest, asked him to answer written questions and asked lawyers for survivors and victims' families, as well as other parties to the inquest, if they wished to cross-examine him.
The terrorist provided two written briefs to the court in September 2024.
The only application to cross-examine him was filed by counsel assisting the coroner.
Calling terrorist 'repugnant to the interests of justice'
Survivors and victims' families made their objections heard throughout the inquest.
Justice Eaton said he had listened to their concerns.
"At a hearing on 14 October 2024 those interested parties opposed Mr Tarrant giving evidence in open court due to the risk of him turning the process into 'a platform to encourage like-minded individuals into the murderous behaviour of the terrorist'," he said in a decision released on Wednesday.
"They questioned whether Mr Tarrant would provide oral evidence that was reliable or that had not previously been addressed by the Royal Commission of Inquiry. Further, they were concerned the costs and the efforts that would need to be taken to allow Mr Tarrant to give evidence may not be outweighed by any benefit."
They asked the High Court to set aside the coroner's decision and for the coroner to reconsider calling the terrorist as a witness.
Eaton heard evidence on the review in February.
"It was contended a reasonable coroner would only call Mr Tarrant as a witness if satisfied the evidence was necessary, and that the coroner failed to consider the reliability of the evidence, the impact on the inquiry in the absence of the evidence, and the availability of similar evidence," Justice Eaton said.
"The second ground of review alleged there had been an error of law as the coroner had misconstrued the limits on the power to admit such evidence, applied the wrong legal test, misconstrued the threshold to meet the test of 'necessary', misconstrued the meaning of 'causes of death' under the Act, asked the wrong questions and/or failed to adopt a presumption of exclusion or exceptionality.
"The third ground of review alleged irrationality and unreasonableness in the decision. It was alleged that calling Mr Tarrant 'is repugnant to the interests of justice', fails to mitigate the risk to public order and safety, unfairly prejudices the rights and entitlements of other interested parties...and the evidence has not been established as necessary. The third grounds of irrationality and unreasonableness are no longer pursued."
Eaton ruled the coroner had not made any error of law.
"Each of the considerations identified by the applicant under the first ground of the review were weighed by the coroner, including those which are arguably not relevant to the admissibility of evidence. The coroner has exercised her judgement in an appropriate manner having regard to the countervailing interests, including public order and safety, as well as the overarching purpose of the inquiry," Justice Eaton said.
"The alleged errors of law do not withstand scrutiny. They are closely connected and advanced on a flawed premise.
"Parliament has invested in the coroner a very broad discretion as to the evidence to be admitted at an inquiry. That reflects the broad purposes of an inquiry including not only an investigation into the circumstances of the death but making of recommendations to avoid a similar future event. Generally, but particularly in a coronial inquiry involving such horrific offending, so many deaths and such great public interest, issues of relevance, necessity or desirability of hearing evidence is very much for an experienced coroner so well versed with the subject matter.
"The extensive powers set out in the Act allow coroners to pursue all lines of inquiry and to weigh the evidence in a holistic manner to ensure findings are both effective and robust. Only then will the determination command the respect of society - this particular determination being one that is of high public interest both domestically and internationally.
"With respect and recognition given to the very sensitive nature of these proceedings, there has been no reviewable error by the coroner."
No date has yet been set for the second phase inquest to resume.
Coroner examines 'New Zealand's darkest day'
The coroner's first phase inquest, which began in October 2023 and heard further evidence in May and August 2024, covered 10 issues relating to the events of March 15, 2019, and the response of emergency services to the massacre.
It took just minutes for the terrorist to leave 44 worshippers dead or dying at Al Noor Mosque as he possessed two semi-automatic centrefire rifles as well as a multitude of high-capacity magazines, two shotguns, a lever-action rifle and a bolt-action rifle.
He then drove to the mosque in Linwood, where he killed seven more people.
Tarrant was able to obtain a New Zealand's firearms licence through a gaming friend who was aware of his extremist political opinions and his racist and Islamophobic beliefs. The friend and the friend's father acted as referees.
He had originally planned to use his sister as a referee but the licensing clerk rejected that possibility because she lived in Australia and could not be interviewed face-to-face.
The terrorist first submitted an application to obtain a firearms licence just 15 days after arriving in New Zealand in August 2017.
At the time of the attacks, the terrorist only held a standard A-category licence but by inserting the high-capacity magazines into the semi-automatic centrefire rifles he had turned them into restricted E-category military-style semi-automatic rifles.
