Martin Bryant's disturbing motive behind Port Arthur massacre is revealed as unearthed psychiatric reports expose mind of mass murderer

Daily Mail​

08-06-2025

Martin Bryant initially planned to murder an older couple before he went on to kill 35 people in the Port Arthur massacre, according to psychiatric reports.
Bryant made the admission in an interview with forensic psychologist Paul Mullen in the week after he tore through Port Arthur with two semi-automatic rifles in 1996.
The 58-year-old is currently serving 35 life sentences at Risdon Prison Complex following the horrific attack.
Dr Mullen's reports contained Bryant's confessions and a possible explanation for the massacre, including Bryant's admission he wished he had been gunned down at the scene.
Bryant told Dr Mullen at his Hobart Royal Hospital bedside that his murder plot was hatched initially due to his hatred for Noeline 'Sally' Martin and her husband David.
The pair owned a bed and breakfast called Seascape Cottage, just to the north of the former penal settlement.
Bryant's father Maurice was desperate to buy the business and on several occasions sent his son to try and convince the Martins to sell.
According to psychological reports, Maurice would tell his son about his disdain for the Martins, the Daily Telegraph reported.
When Maurice took his life in 1993, Bryant came to blame the Martins, and believed the couple bought the bed and breakfast to stop his father from doing so.
He told Dr Mullen the Martins were 'the worst people in my life'.
Bryant initially plotted to kill the Martins about 12 months before the eventual massacre, but the plan escalated to a mass killing as Bryant struggled with loneliness and his inability to make friends.
He told Dr Mullen all he had wanted was to be liked by people.
As he approached the planned date for the massacre, Bryant became resolute in his plans.
'It was set in my mind, it was just set that Sunday,' he said.
'I wasn't worried about losing my property or never seeing my girlfriend again. It was just in my mind to go down and kill the Martins and a lot of people.'
Psychology reports from Bryant's youth showed he was violent, tortured animals, and delighted in bullying his younger sister and children at school, Dr Mullen said.
His IQ was 66 and he had a limited vocabulary. He was, however, aware of his own social issues, and bullying at school led to a pervasive fear people were laughing behind his back.
Bryant also struggled to grapple with the passing of time and would conflate historical perceived injustices with the present day, holding grudges against perpetrators.
'He talked of the extent to which he thinks about the distress and rejections in the past. He said that he tries to live day by day, but acknowledged frequent thoughts about past rejections and what he recalls as victimisation at school by bullies intrude,' Dr Mullen said.
Approaching the end of his 20s, Bryant began believing he had no future and feared he would remain lonely and rejected for life.
He had troubles sleeping and feared his house was haunted by two women.
His drinking increased and he became a daily drinker to pass the time and keep company with himself, talking to himself while drunk, according to his interview with Dr Muller.
A year before the massacre, Bryant believed his life was not worth continuing and fixated on people he believed had caused him harm.
He thought he himself would be better dead, but wanted to get square with those who had wronged him.
Bryant initially had planned on strangling someone, but his fixation on weapons led him to hatch a shooting plan.
His plan to shoot the Martins was made, but the plan for a larger shooting came to him in the weeks before the eventual massacre.
He chose the location for its history of violence, labelling the former penitentiary as one of the most violent places in the country.
Bryant took his guns down to Port Arthur on April 28, 1996 with the intention of killing others and getting killed himself, Dr Mullen said.
The Port Arthur massacre remains one of the darkest days in Australia's history.
At the time, it was considered the world's worst massacre, with 35 people killed and 23 injured by Bryant.
Bryant was handed 35 life sentences and more than a thousand additional years' jail without parole.
The shooting prompted significant gun reform under then-prime minister John Howard via the 1996 National Firearms Agreement.
The laws banned rapid-fire guns from civilian ownership except under certain, restricted licences.
It also tightened requirements for firearms licensing, registration and safe storage and established a government buyback of semi-automatic and pump-action rifles and shotguns.