“Your crimes, however, are so wicked that even if you are detained until you die it will not exhaust the requirements of punishment and denunciation,” Mander said when handing down the sentence. “As far as I can discern, you are empty of any empathy for your victims.

“It is incumbent on the court to respond in a way that decisively rejects such vicious malevolence,” Mander said, condemning Tarrant’s “warped” ideology and “base hatred”.

“It was brutal and beyond callous. Your actions were inhuman,” he said.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern welcomed the life sentence, saying Tarrant deserved a lifetime of “complete and utter silence”.

“The trauma of March 15 is not easily healed but today I hope is the last where we have any cause to hear or utter the name of the terrorist behind it,” said Ardern, who was widely praised for her response to the attacks. “His deserves to be a lifetime of complete and utter silence.”

Ardern acknowledged the strength of the Muslim community, whose members shared victim impact statements over three days in the Christchurch High Court ahead of the sentencing announcement.

“You relived the horrific events of March 15 to chronicle what happened that day and the pain it has left behind,” she said. “Nothing will take the pain away but I hope you felt the arms of New Zealand around you through this whole process, and I hope you continue to feel that through all the days that follow.”

New Zealand does not have the death penalty – although some angry survivors said that was what they wanted for Tarrant – and a life sentence usually attracts a term of 10 to 17 years.

But Hamimah Tuyan, whose husband Zekeriya died of his wounds 48 days after the attack, on Wednesday urged the court to use its full powers to impose an unprecedented sentence.

“He deserves not a life imprisonment term of 17, 25 or 30 years, but life imprisonment until his last gasp, his last breath,” she told the court.

“He does not deserve credit for his guilty plea, surely a heartless murderer cannot expect to gain any benefit for this? It will be a grave injustice, your honour, if he is ever given a second chance to walk in society again.”

Far-right terrorism still alive in New Zealand, a year after massacre

Tuyan, who moved to Singapore with her children after the attack and flew back to New Zealand to witness the sentencing, said Tarrant’s “heinous act” had united New Zealanders of all backgrounds in revulsion.

“I have faith that when judgment day comes [on Thursday] his punishment will represent the people of New Zealand’s repulsion for, and denunciation of, murder and evil white supremacist ideology,” she said.

Tarrant, who has sat impassively throughout proceedings, waived his right to speak at the sentencing, even though he sacked his legal team last month intending to represent himself.

In the days before the sentencing, the court heard emotionally charged testimony from the survivors of the attack.

Sara Qasem paid tribute to her father Abdelfattah Qasem, who was killed at Al Noor mosque.

“My father, the apple of our eyes Abdelfattah Qasem, he had a name,” she said. “I wonder if he was in pain, if he was frightened, and what his final thoughts were. And I wish more than anything in the world that I could have been there to hold his hand and tell him it would all be OK. But I couldn’t do that.

“I never would have ever imagined that the country my parents immigrated to for safety and for a successful future for their children would result in this. I urge you to take a look around this court room and ask yourself who exactly is the other here right now? Is it us or is it you? I think the answer’s pretty clear.”

New Zealand mosque shooter spent years preparing attack, court hears

Ahad Nabi, whose father Haji Mohemmed Daoud Nabi was among the victims, challenged Tarrant even more directly.

“You deserve to be buried in a landfill,” he said. “This world was created with colour, a peasant like you will never change the human race.

“Allah allowed your small plan to go ahead for the people to see the bigger picture and to be aware of our evil surrounding. Your actions on that day displayed what a coward you are. You shot at defenceless people that were not aware of what was going on until they knew it was too late.

“My 71-year-old dad would have broken you in half if you had challenged him to a fight. But you are weak, a sheep with a wolf’s jacket on for only 10 minutes of your whole life.”

Additional reporting by Reuters