Breivik's Ex-EDL 'Mentor' Condemns Massacre

A former English Defence League activist who fears his blog influenced Norwegian massacre suspect Anders Breivik has condemned the killings.

Breivik, 32, is facing trial over bomb and gun attacks last Friday that left 76 people dead - including dozens of teenagers - and shocked the world.

Before the killings, Breivik published online a 1,500-page 'manifesto' - a chilling justification of his actions.

It cites a number of influences, but apparently hails Englishman Paul Ray as his mentor, thanks to his anti-Muslim blog which the 35-year-old entitled Richard The Lionheart.

Mr Ray is the leader of a Knights Templar movement inspired by the actions of medieval crusaders against Islam and wrote the blog to vent his frustration at the Muslims living in Luton.

Breivik, who contacted his 'mentor' and attempted to become his Facebook friend, praised Mr Ray for defending his town from Islamification.

But Malta-based Mr Paul condemned the killings and said he turned Brievik down as a friend on the social networking site, as he "didn't like the look of him".

"I am being implicated as his mentor," said Mr Ray, who left Britain for Malta in 2008 after he was arrested for allegedly inciting racial hatred on his blogsite.

"I definitely could have been his inspiration," he conceded.

"He has given me a platform and a profile but what he did was pure evil. I could never use what he has done to further my own beliefs."

Breivik, who admitted detonating a bomb in Oslo which killed eight people before gunning down 68 on the island of Utoya, posted pictures of himself dressed in the Knights Templar uniform.

In the manifesto, he described a man similar to Mr Ray as his 'mentor' after he claimed to have met him at an event in 2008.

On Sunday, the English Defence League (EDL) denied in a statement it had any "official contact" with Breivik, despite his claims that he had been in touch with them.

"We can categorically state that there has never been any official contact between him and the EDL - our Facebook page had 100,000 supporters and receives tens of thousands of comments each day," the statement read.

"And there is no evidence that Breivik was ever one of those 100,000 supporters."

:: Breivik was due to be interrogated by police for a second time.