Mass killer Breivik moans about his wrecked childhood bike

Self-confessed mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik has told his Norwegian trial about instances from his childhood and adolescence when he was supposedly slighted by Muslims, seeming to suggest they played a role in his radicalisation.

Breivik testified that when he was seven, his friend’s Turkish father wrecked his bicycle, and at the age of 15, he was slapped by a Pakistani subway driver for riding on the outside of a carriage.

The court sat stunned as Breivik, who has admitted to killing 77 people in a bomb and shooting rampage last summer, read a litany of grievances from a sheet of paper covered in minuscule handwriting.

In 1995, he said, one of his close friends had been “threatened” by a Kosovo-Albanian youth while waiting for the tram. Breivik said he also heard that the little sister of one of his friends had been cut with a knife – an incident he knew nothing about but still ascribed to Muslims.

When asked by a judge whether he had any positive experiences with Muslims, he replied: “One good thing about Muslims is that they’re very loyal.”

Breivik also made reference to several past racially motivated attacks in Norway, such as the murders of Arve Beheim Karlsen and Benjamin Hermansen, both young Norwegian men with foreign roots. Benjamin’s murder in 2001 had a poignant resonance in Norwegian society, triggering massive protests against right-wing violence. Michael Jackson even dedicated his 2001 album Invincible to Benjamin, who was 15 at the time of his death.

Yesterday’s hearing was part of the defence testimony. The trial is expected to end on 22 June, with a verdict due before the first anniversary of the attacks on 22 July.