In the eastern Australian riverside town of Grafton, Brenton Tarrant was – until about 1.40pm today in Christchurch - known as a “lovely” fitness-obsessed local from a respected family.

But the 28-year-old, who attended Grafton High School, a state school, before working as a personal trainer at a local gym, will now be remembered as one of the orchestrators and gunmen behind the horrific shootings in Christchurch.

Tarrant filmed himself attacking a Christchurch mosque in a Facebook Live video and posted a 74-page manifesto in which he claims to be from a “working class, low income family”. He said he was of Scottish, Irish and English stock and moved to New Zealand temporarily to plan and train and then stayed there after deciding to conduct the attack.

Describing himself as an “ordinary white man”, Tarrant said he was inspired by Norway mass killer Anders Behring Breivik and wanted to avenge “thousands of deaths caused by foreign invaders”.

“I have read the writings of Dylan Roof and many others, but only really took true inspiration from Knight Justiciar Breivik,” he wrote.

He said he wanted to avenge the death of Ebba Akerlund, an 11-year-old who was killed in a 2017 terror attack in Stockholm.