Man jailed for sharing footage of Christchurch mosque shooting
Philip Arps "glorified" the shootings and has showed no empathy or remorse for those who had been affected, a judge says.
Tuesday 18 June 2019 06:38, UK
A man has been jailed in New Zealand for sharing footage of the Al Noor Mosque attack.
Christchurch businessman Philip Neville Arps had admitted two charges of distributing an objectionable publication after the shootings.
On Tuesday he was jailed for 21 months, with a judge saying he had "glorified" the shootings.
Fifty-one Muslims died after being shot as they attended Friday prayers at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in March.
The Al Noor shooting was streamed on Facebook.
Arps, among 13 people charged regarding the attack material, distributed the video to approximately 30 people on the social networking site, the court heard.
The second charge related to him asking another person to add crosshairs and a "kill count" to the video, intending to use this as a meme.
He was arrested days after the shootings and has been kept in solitary confinement since then.
In comments reported by the NZ Herald, Judge Stephen O'Driscoll said on Tuesday that Arps, 44, had "strong and unrepentant views towards the Muslim community".
The court heard that Arps, who runs what was described as an insulation company that has used neo-Nazi imagery, showed "particular cruelty" in sharing the footage the day after the attack.
A pre-sentence report said Arps showed no remorse or empathy for any of those affected.
Judge O'Driscoll said some parts of the pre-sentence report were concerning but he did not mention them publicly, wary of Arps considering them a "badge of honour".
The judge did, however, say that Arps had once compared himself to Nazi war criminal Rudolf Hess and that the report said he posed a high risk of re-offending.
According to TVNZ, Arps faces six months of strict conditions after he completes his sentence.
These include psychiatric assessments, drug and alcohol treatment and a ban on using the internet.
Facebook, the world's largest social media platform, has been criticised for being slow to take down footage of the attacks, which was deemed objectionable by New Zealand's chief censor David Shanks.
Along with other social media, Facebook has long been under pressure to do more about hateful and abusive posts.