The Ripple Effect: A look back at the worst terror attack on New Zealand soil. Video / NZ Herald
A teen caught with livestream footage of the Christchurch mosque shootings – and who later indecently assaulted a young girl - told police he shared the ideology of the mass killer and said the massacres were justified.
Daniel John Burrough was 18 years old at the time of the March 15, 2019 terror attacks and part of a Facebook chat group where he spouted his racist views.
After the killings, he sent a link of the gunman's livestream of the massacre from the website liveleak.com to his chat group, which had about 15 members.
Burrough recommended they check it out, saying: "Here's the live [link] but if that's down, I'll share it over Google."
After he was arrested, Burrough told police that he shared the ideology of the gunman and stated that the acts were justified. He admitted possession of the video.
Police analysis of his laptop computer found the internet link of the full video which was downloaded and saved to his desktop on March 15.
Daniel John Burrough was sentenced at Christchurch District Court today.
Three days after the attacks, the Chief Censor banned the video, classifying it as objectionable under the Films, Videos & Publications Classification Act 1993.
Burrough was charged with possession of the video on the day after the attacks.
But he later went on to also indecently assaulted a young girl under the age of 12.
At Christchurch District Court today, Crown prosecutor Shivani Dayal said a pre-sentence report revealed Burrough shows "clearly no remorse".
"It appears his extremist views against people of the Muslim faith continue and he has not been deterred," she said.
But defence counsel Andrew McKenzie argued that Burrough should not be treated differently if he thinks differently or has views that people find "repugnant".
McKenzie hopes that counselling can help soften some of Burroughs' "harder views".
Judge Paul Kellar told Burrough, now aged 20, that his rehabilitation needs are complex.
He sentenced him to six months' community detention, with a daily 8pm-4am curfew, and 18 months of intensive supervision with special conditions. He will also be judicially monitored, meaning the judge will regularly check how his intensive supervision sentence is going.
Burrough was also placed on the Child Sex Offender Register.
Judge Kellar also refused a defence application to grant permanent name suppression, concluding that the high threshold of extreme hardship if he was named had not been met.
