The gunman of the terrorist attack on two Christchurch mosques in New Zealand in March last year was sentenced to life imprisonment, the High Court announced on Thursday.

Judge Cameron Mander said the crimes committed by 29-year-old Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant were so wicked that a lifetime in jail could not begin to atone for them. He said they had caused enormous loss and hurt and stemmed from a warped and malignant ideology.

"Your actions were inhuman," Mander said. "You deliberately killed a 3-year-old infant by shooting him in the head as he clung to the leg of his father.”

After the sentence was announced, survivors of the shootings raised hands and fists in celebration and greeted supporters waving signs with painted hearts and carrying roses outside the court building.

The March 2019 attacks targeting people praying at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch shocked New Zealand and prompted new laws banning the deadliest types of semi-automatic weapons. 

During the four-day sentencing hearing, 90 survivors and family members recounted the horror of that day and the trauma they continue to feel. 

Tarrant pleaded guilty in March to 51 counts of murder, 40 counts of attempted murder and one count of terrorism, reversing his earlier not-guilty pleas.

The judge said Tarrant recently told a psychiatrist that he now rejects his extremist views and considers his attacks "abhorrent and irrational." 

Tarrant arrived in New Zealand in 2017, never sought work, and began planning for his attack by stockpiling high-powered weapons and joining shooting clubs, the judge said.

"It appears that while traveling in Europe you developed deep-seated radical views regarding the migrant population of some Western countries," the judge said.

"You committed mass murder," the judge said. "You slaughtered unarmed and defenseless people. You maimed, wounded and crippled many others. Your victims include the young and the old, men, women and children.”

"No sentence will bring our loved ones back," a family member of victims said. "But at least we can close this chapter and move on." 

Brenton Tarrant, a 29-year-old Australian, killed 51 people, mostly worshippers, on March 15, 2019. He pleaded guilty to the murder of 51 people, attempted murder of another 40 and one charge of terrorism.

The sentencing hearing lasted four days and more than 60 victim impact statements were heard.

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NZ mosque shooter spends years preparing for attack: sentencing hearing