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National

Adelaide man who downloaded Christchurch mosque attack video handed suspended jail sentence

Bennett Russell Maynard-Brown has his sentence suspended after pleading guilty to possessing extremist material. (ABC News)

An Adelaide man who downloaded video of the 2019 Christchurch mosque attack, but "no longer holds racist ideology", has been handed a suspended jail sentence.

Bennett Russell Maynard-Brown, 33, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing extremist material in the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

The court was told Maynard-Brown's housemates had handed in a hard drive containing the "violent" videos to the Holden Hill police station in February, 2021.

In sentencing today, Maynard-Brown's defence lawyer told Magistrate Roderick Jensen her client "did not know it was illegal" to download the video off Facebook, and was now sorry for his "abhorrent" actions.

"Mr Maynard-Brown … accepts he should not have had these materials on the hard drive," the lawyer said.

"A lot of change has happened since the offending.

"He has addressed a number of issues … in particular his mental health and drug use.

The court was told that Maynard-Brown recently converted to Islam, and no longer held "racist ideologies".

It was told he previously suffered from drug-induced psychosis, but has been accessing treatment for methamphetamine use and other mental health conditions with support from his parents.

Maynard-Brown pleaded guilty to one count of possessing extremist material in Adelaide Magistrates Court.  (ABC News: Carl Saville)

Magistrate Jenson found Maynard-Brown "had no interest … in looking at violent material" and sentenced him to two months and three days in prison.

The sentence was suspended on the condition that he comply with a supervision order and be of good behaviour for 12 months.

Australian terrorist Brenton Tarrant was sentenced to life without parole in 2020 for killing 51 people and injuring another 40 at two separate mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch.

His terrorist attack was live-streamed.

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