How travel changed Christchurch massacre suspect Brenton Tarrant forever
Brenton Tarrant has been an adventurous traveller, venturing to North Korea and various places in eastern Europe — and his own writings, he reveals how his trips helped shape his radical views.
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Christchurch mosque gunman Brenton Tarrant’s twisted ideologies and hatred appear to have been cemented as he travelled the world after leaving his native Grafton.
Several months ago Tarrant was in Bulgaria, landing there on November 9 on a flight from Dubai.
Bulgarian officials have told local media they are now investigating his recent Eastern European trip.
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Bulgarian Prosecutor-General Sotir Tsatsarov spoke to local media after a specially convened meeting of Bulgarian security chiefs in the wake of Friday’s mosque massacre.
He said Tarrant was in Bulgaria between November 9-15 last year, hired a car and drove from Sofia via Pleven, Gabrovo, Bachovo, Kazanluk, Blagoevgrad and Pernik, including other places in Bulgaria.
“Tarrant apparently visited various places in Bulgaria, including Dryanovo, Pleven, Blagoevgrad, Plovdiv, Asenovgrad, Bachkovo and Bansko,” the Sofia Globe reported the prosecutor as saying.
“From Bulgaria, he had flown to Bucharest, from where he rented a car and went on Hungary.”
Turkish authorities have also begun a probe into Tarrant’s 2016 travels to their country. They say he visited Turkey from March 17-20, 2016 and again from September 13 to October, 2016.
Tarrant appears to have based himself most recently in Dunedin in New Zealand where he was a member of a local gym and a member of the Bruce Rifle Club in South Otago.
He had travelled the world using money gleaned from investments he made after an inheritance following his father’s death in 2010.
In October Tarrant was in Pakistan, spending two nights in a hotel in Gilgit Baltistan. He also visited North Korea where he was photographed at the Samijiyon Grand Monument.
He makes mention, in his 73-page online manifesto, of travelling as a tourist in Western Europe — to France, Spain, Portugal and other places. And he says that it was the period to April 2017 to the end of May 2017 when his views radically changed.
He tells of travelling in France and of seeing “the invaders” had taken over.
“No matter where I travelled, no matter how small or rural the community I visited, the invaders were there,” he says of France.
Originally published as How travel changed Christchurch massacre suspect Brenton Tarrant forever
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