Tuesday was the day Norwegians hoped they might begin to understand how Anders Behring Breivik became the worst mass murderer in the country's recent history.
Almost nine months after killing 77 people in three brutal hours, Breivik took to the stand at Oslo central criminal court to describe what he called "the most sophisticated and spectacular political attack committed in Europe since the second world war".
Just when it seemed he was taking responsibility for his actions, or showing a hint of remorse, Breivik would deliver a callous endnote. "I know it is gruesome what I have done and I know that I have caused an incredible amount of pain to thousands of people," he said at one point, before adding: "But it was necessary." And: "I would do it again."
In a pre-prepared statement, which the court allowed him to read out for more than an hour – a highly unusual concession granted only because he refused to give evidence at all otherwise – he insisted it was "goodness, not evil" that had prompted him to act in order to prevent a "major civil war".
The persona that emerged during day two of Breivik's 10-week trial was a rambling, repetitive obsessive, fixated on a threat he never truly managed to articulate, but which involved "cultural Marxists", whom he claimed had destroyed Norway by using it as "a dumping ground for the surplus births of the third world".
Norwegians would be a minority in their own capital city within five to 10 years, he said, and he blamed liberal politicians for bringing about Norway's demise by allowing immigration as well as "feminism, quotas … transforming the church, schools". » | Helen Pidd in Oslo | Tuesday, April 17, 2012
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