Gunman unmoved during sentencing

The white supremacist who murdered 51 Muslims in last year's New Zealand mosques shooting showed no emotion yesterday as distraught survivors confronted him in court with harrowing accounts of the atrocity.

At the opening of the sentencing hearing in a Christchurch courtroom, prosecutors revealed chilling details of a meticulously planned attack in which Brenton Tarrant wanted "to have shot more people than he did".

With the Australian gunman face-to-face with the bereaved families and wounded for the first time, survivors told of hiding under bodies, of forgiving Tarrant, and of living with the sound of an automatic rifle ringing in their ears.

Held amid tight security with snipers positioned on downtown rooftops, the hearing was told how on March 15 last year the heavily-armed Tarrant opened fire on men, women and children, ignoring pleas for help and driving over one body as he moved from one mosque to the next.

When he saw three-year-old Mucad Ibrahim clinging to his father's leg, Tarrant killed him "with two precisely aimed shots," prosecutor Barnaby Hawes told the court.

Tarrant has pleaded guilty to 51 charges of murder, 40 of attempted murder and one of terrorism after storming into two mosques in Christchurch, with the rampage ending when police stopped him as he travelled to a third.

Lawyers expect the 29-year-old to be the first person jailed for life without parole in New Zealand. "He stated that he wanted to have shot more people than he did and was on the way to another mosque in Ashburton to carry out another attack when he was stopped," Hawes said.