New Zealand man sentenced to 21 months in prison for sharing mosque killings video online

WELLINGTON - A New Zealand man who admitted redistributing the livestream video of the Christchurch terror attack has been sentenced to 21 months in prison on Tuesday.

Philip Arps, who runs a company that uses neo-Nazi imagery, pleaded guilty in April to two charges of distributing objectionable material.

The 44-year-old admitted that the day after the mosque killings, he had sent away the video to have it modified with cross-hairs and a "kill count," and distributed the unmodified video to 30 people.

Tuesday morning in the Christchurch District Court, judge Stephen O'Driscoll said when Arps was asked for his opinion of the video, he said it was "awesome."

Because of Arps' extreme ideological outlook, there was no prospect of his rehabilitation and his sentence should rule out home detention, said the judge.

Arps also faces six months of post-release conditions when he must attend psychological assessment, not access the internet, and undergo assessment and counselling for alcohol and drug use.

Judge O'Driscoll said Arps wanted to glorify the deaths of members of the Muslim community and any sentence short of imprisonment would not be appropriate.