Father of New Zealand mosque victim tells gunman there's no forgiveness

The father of slain three-year-old Mucaad Ibrahim in the New Zealand mosque shootings told the gunman that "true justice" awaited him in the next life and it would be more severe than prison.

"You have killed my son and to me it is as if you have killed the whole of New Zealand," Aden Ibrahim Diriye said in a statement read by a family member during a sentencing hearing for Brenton Tarrant on Wednesday.

"I will never forgive you for what you have done."

Dozens of survivors and families of victims have addressed the court this week and many have urged the judge to sentence Tarrant to the most severe sentence.

While most of Tarrant's victims were at Al Noor mosque, he killed seven people at the Linwood mosque, before being detained en route to a third.

Ahad Nabi, who lost his 71-year-old father in the attack, stared at Tarrant before delivering a passionate statement, demanding that Tarrant should "never walk free" for his cowardly actions.

"There's nothing heroic about shooting people from behind and people not having a chance of defending themselves," he said.

Prosecutors have told the court that Tarrant wanted to instil fear in those he described as invaders and that he carefully planned the attacks to cause maximum carnage.

Live reporting from the courtroom was banned, and other restrictions were put in place on what the media could report.

Tarrant is scheduled to be sentenced this week after pleading guilty to 51 murders, 40 attempted murders and one charge of committing a terrorist act during the 2019 shooting rampage in the city of Christchurch which he had livestreamed on Facebook.