The grandmother of a white supremacist gunman reacted with disbelief after learning the 'good boy' she saw last Christmas could have murdered 49 people.
Joyce Tarrant, 94, said the cold-blooded killer who filmed himself calmly gunning down Muslims during Friday prayers was not the grandson she knew.
Self-confessed terrorist Brenton Harrison Tarrant, 28, faced a New Zealand court on Saturday charged with murder a day after his rampage.
The news came as a shock to the family, particularly to Brenton's mother Sharon who was in class teaching a double-period of English when her son allegedly went on his shooting rampage.
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Brenton Harrison Tarrant (pictured), 28, originally from Grafton, NSW, was a 'good boy' who most recently came home to visit his family at Christmas, according to his grandmother
Tarrant's shocked grandmother Joyce (left) said she was shocked that he could have murdered 49 people. His mother Sharon (right) was teaching a high school class when she found about her son's alleged involvement in the terror attack
After receiving calls from journalists on Friday afternoon, the Maclean High School teacher had to be pulled out of class and told about her son's alleged act.
It is believed that Sharon and Tarrant's sister Lauren have gone into hiding after being interviewed by counter-terrorism police on Friday.
The shooter's family approached the police as soon as they recognised his face on TV coverage of the atrocity, NSW officers said on Saturday.
His grandmother Joyce said Tarrant visited his family in Grafton, in northern NSW, twice a year, most recently at Christmas.
'It's all very shocking, especially [it being] Brenton, he's a good boy,' she told Daily Mail Australia.
'He was always nice and kind and was sure to visit us twice a year.'
Joyce said the whole family including Tarrant's mother Sharon was struggling with the news.
'We're just doing the best we can,' she said at the door of her weatherboard house under the huge bridge that links Grafton's north and south.
Joyce said Tarrant showed no signs of extremist ideology when she last spoke with him.
Elsewhere in the riverbank town of about 22,000 people, locals were uneasy being at the centre of international attention.
Grafton is famous for its picturesque jacaranda trees, but now also for the evil that grew up there.
'This has put Grafton on the map, but not in a good way. We had enough to worry about,' one said.
A young Tarrant is seen being held in the arms of his father Rodney, who died in 2010, and next to his mother Sharon
Tarrant had travelled across Europe and Asia following the death of his father, visiting nations including North Korea, Pakistan and Bulgaria. It's believed that he developed some of his extremist views while travelling
!['It's all very shocking, especially [it being] Brenton, he's a good boy,' Joyce Tarrant told Daily Mail Australia](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2019/03/16/04/11063080-0-image-a-20_1552709492702.jpg)
'It's all very shocking, especially [it being] Brenton, he's a good boy,' Joyce Tarrant told Daily Mail Australia
'Tears, Shock horror and shame that such evil is associated with not only our country but our home town, another said.
'I feel so terrible for the people and families affected
