Port Arthur footage removed from YouTube

A photo taken on April 29, 1996 shows a Tasmanian policeman looking in the window of a Volvo belonging to Martin Bryant, the gunman responsible for Australia's worst modern-day massacre. Photo / AFP

Footage of the aftermath of the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania has been removed from social media website YouTube after a police investigation.

The nine-minute police evidence video, which was stolen from the video archive of Tasmanian police, included graphic images of some of the 35 people killed by lone gunman Martin Bryant at the former penal institution turned tourist attraction.

Titled "Port Arthur massacre, police training video", the footage of bodies, taken by police inside the Broad Arrow cafe after Bryant's rampage, showed the victims and their bullet wounds.

Police demanded the video be removed after it was uploaded by an account holder under the alias "FreeMartynBryant".

The Daily Telegraph newspaper today reported user profile of FreeMartynBryant contains more than 20 videos pertaining to "conspiracies" surrounding the events of Port Arthur, with several videos claiming Bryant was innocent and a "patsy".

It is not yet known how the footage was obtained and it is not the first time it has been loaded on to the internet - a leaked copy was also discovered in 2004.

Police have launched an investigation to determine how the video was stolen for a second time.

Brisbane-based trauma psychologist Paul Stevenson, who worked for many years with massacre survivors and victims' families, was dismayed the video had resurfaced.

"To post this is a nasty, terrible thing to have occurred," he said.

"Watching or hearing it is a re-experience, all of those things people felt at the time come back. The tragedy occurs all over again. This is a real worry for families of victims."

Bryant is in the psychiatric wing of Risdon Prison in Hobart, Tasmania. The sentencing judge ordered he remain in prison for the rest of his life.

- NZPA