Video game effects, metal music added to graphic Christchurch footage allegedly shared by Qld man
A self-made video depicting graphic footage of the Christchurch mosque massacre and heavy metal music has been played to a Queensland court.
An edited video depicting graphic footage of the Christchurch mosque massacre, with video game sound effects and heavy metal music added to the clip, has been played to a Queensland court.
Simon John Hickey did not react as the confronting footage of Brenton Tarrant’s 2019 shooting rampage was played to a jury at Brisbane District Court on Wednesday.
Tarrant killed 51 Muslim worshippers after attacking two mosques in Christchurch. The attack was live streamed on social media.
Mr Hickey is accused of using the encrypted messaging app Signal to send links of the footage to multiple contacts in March 2019 – just weeks after the attack.
He has pleaded not guilty to five counts of using a carriage service in a way that reasonable persons would regard as being offensive.
In messages to his contacts over Signal, he is alleged to have described the video as “fun for the whole family” and it “should be on TV”.
The jury was shown the file on Wednesday, opening with the title card ‘How much more of this sh*t did you think we would take?’ before cutting to footage of the attack.
Heavy metal music and video game sound effects play over the footage as Tarrant carries out the attack.
Images of various global terror attacks appear on the footage and lines of text reading “Finish the job” flash by on the screen.
Computer analyst Marc Dunn told the court he took screenshots of messages on Mr Hickey’s phone – which contained links to the self-made video – when his property was searched by police in April 2019.
He said the end-to-end encryption used by the Signal app only allowed the recipients and message senders to see each other’s exchanges.
In one of the messages, the contact questions whether Mr Hickey made a video and if the people depicted were real.
“Are these real people? Or a computer game?” she asked in one of the texts.
“Wow … I’m a bit shocked by this video. The police should not see this with you, never.”
In other messages, Mr Hickey is alleged to have encouraged a contact to share the video.
“Share this by SIGNAL or secret text only. It’s video (sic) made by me lol check it out,” the message reads.
The jury has been asked to decide if a reasonable person would have regarded the content shared over Signal as offensive and if Mr Hickey was reckless to that fact.
The trial continues.