Fife mosque attack suspect had videos of Christchurch terror attack on phone

Sam Imrie denies all of the nine charges against him, three of which come under the Terrorism Act

The Masjid Al Noor mosque in Christchurch, 51 people were killed in 2019 (Reuters)

A man accused of terrorism offences had three copies of a livestream of the 2019 mass shooting in New Zealand on his phone, a court has heard.

The iPhone belonging to Sam Imrie, 24, also had a number of images glorying the shooter, Brenton Tarrant, with words such as “Saint Tarrant” and “hail Tarrant”.

White supremacist Tarrant was sentenced to life in prison without parole in August last year after two mosque shootings where he killed 51 people and injured 40 others.

Giving evidence on Wednesday, Detective Constable Murray Cairns of the Edinburgh organised crime and counter-terrorism unit described the footage of the attack as “horrific.”

He told the court: [Tarrant] carried out a filming session of the attack. He livestreamed it at first, which was copied and then went massive on the internet.”

Asked to describe the video, he said: “It’s horrific. It starts with him driving, playing music before arriving at the Islamic centre.

“You see him getting the weapon from his car, going to the Islamic centre, you can see people walking towards him and he starts shooting, murdering them. You see him going from room to room, getting back into his vehicle.

“It’s graphic, you see him deciding when to fire and when not to fire.”

Mr Imrie has been charged with posting statements on social media platform Telegram suggesting he was going to carry out an attack on the Fife Islamic Centre in Glenrothes, Fife.

The 24-year-old has also been accused of planning to stream live footage of “an incident”.

DC Cairns told the High Court in Edinburgh he had retrieved the files from the accused’s phone on July 31 2019.

The court was also shown images from the accused’s Facebook page. The cover photo fo his profile was described in court as Adolf Hitler, standing in front of a microphone, addressing a crowd.

His biography read: “Seeing muslims suffer” and a number of symbols associated with “far-right Nazism” were also on the page.

DC Cairns said one post which said “1488” could be explained in two parts.

The number 14 related to a sentence in Mein Kampf, a book written by Adolf Hitler, which he told the court said something along the lines of “We must assure a future for our people and a future for white children.”

He said it is associated with “modern neo-Nazi movements.”

The number 88, he said can be read as “HH” or “Heil Hitler”, with the numbers “transposed to letters”.

Among other charges, Imrie is accused of being in possession of neo-Nazi, antisemitic and anti-Muslim material, extreme pornography, including indecent images of children, and an image involving a human corpse.

He is also charged with driving while under the influence of drugs and alcohol in July 2019.

He denies all of the nine charges against him, three of which come under the Terrorism Act.

The trial continues.

Additional reporting by PA