Christchurch terror attack Royal Commission reveals shooter’s vile emails

A seemingly innocuous email was among the first signs of a twisted individual’s plan that resulted in one of the worst mass shootings in world history.

A sign photographed at the Bruce Rifle Club in the days following the attack. Picture: John Feder/The Australian

The email an Australian terrorist sent to a rifle club a month before he booked flights to New Zealand was among the “first manifestations of his terrorist intent” according to a Royal Commission into his vile crimes.

The terrorist, whose name appears only once among hundreds of pages of findings from the Royal Commission where he’s otherwise referred to as “the individual”, emailed a rifle club with a seemingly innocuous inquiry early in 2017.

He’s now rotting in jail for killing 51 worshippers at a Christchurch mosque last year.

The attack has been subject to a Royal Commission in New Zealand.

A report of its findings was introduced to the parliament on Tuesday.

According to that report, investigators were satisfied he “had a terrorist attack in mind” by the time he sent the email.

“Hey there, just wondering if the Bruce Rifle Club is still operating? And if so are they accepting new members?” the individual wrote to the club near Dunedin on January 21, 2017.

“Yep still going,” came the reply.

The individual responded that was “great news” because he was “looking to move down that way”.

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Emails sent by the terrorist to Bruce Rifle Club. Investigators are confident he had a terrorist attack in mind when he sent them. Picture: New Zealand Royal Commission of Inquiry Into The Terrorist Attack on Christchurch Mosques

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He did indeed “move down that way” in August of 2017, moving into a “very bare” Dunedin flat that “petrified” his mother when she visited over a year later.

She told investigators she returned home to Australia fearful for her son’s mental health, increasingly racist views, lack of friends, and his isolation in a small empty flat.

She later sent him an email about extreme right-wing groups grooming young men like him, that he never responded to, despite a computer, desk and chair being one of the few pieces of furniture in his lair.

The Royal Commission found the individual planned, financed and enacted the attack alone.

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A gate at the Bruce Rifle Club. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

He had previously visited the rifle club in 2013 with a rare friend he met through online gaming and is believed to have visited it again with the same friend after moving to New Zealand in 2017.

When investigators asked him about the email exchange, he said it was because he had “developed an interest in firearms”.

“We do not accept his explanation,” the findings of the Royal Commission read, noting his only experience with firearms were during the 2013 trip and at two tourist attractions while travelling overseas.

“His only interest in firearms was to develop proficiency in their use to carry out a terrorist attack. This was the primary focus of his life in New Zealand,” the report adds.

The Bruce Rifle Club was about 50 kilometres south of Dunedin, where the terrorist lived alone in a practically empty flat. Picture: John Feder/The Australian.

With the benefit of hindsight, members of the rifle club noted that too, with three potentially significant aspects of his behaviour that were “slightly out of the ordinary”.

The first is that he shot standing up, expending large amounts of ammunition, firing at extremely fast rates and changing magazines quickly.

The individual dismissed the comments of his shooting style as hindsight reconstructions, noting a number of others would sometimes fire magazines quickly because “it was fun to do”.

Targets are observed in a bunker at the end of the long distance gun range where the terrorist would reportedly empty magazines as quickly as possible. Picture: Joe Allison/news.com.au

Another member reported feeling uncomfortable after the individual displayed “considerable interest” in their military background.

Two others remembered remarks that indicated the individual may have also had a large capacity magazine, which would have been legal or illegal depending on the type of gun it was fitted to.

A forensic examination of the events leading up to the attack revealed other chilling emails, including a fawning letter of support to a far-right Austrian politician he had also donated money too.

There were also a number of emails the terrorist sent to himself with reconnaissance notes as he scouted locations for the attacks and thoughts for the self-indulgent manifesto he emailed to police and media in the minutes before the shooting began on March 15, 2019.

As in-depth as the investigation into the individual and the atrocity he committed has been, investigators believe they haven’t uncovered the full breadth of his online life.

“We have no doubt that the individual’s internet activity was considerably greater than we have been able to reconstruct,” the report notes.