Breivik victim: being shot was price of democracy

Mass killer Anders Behring Breivik is a “coward little man,” one of his teenage victims said on Wednesday, after showing a court the scars left by four bullets that had pierced her body. Ylva Helene Schwenke, 15, described how Breivik had shot her in the neck and then several more times as she lay bleeding on the floor, declaring the bullets she was hit with are a price worth paying for democracy. “He is a coward little man, really,” Schwenke told reporters after her testimony. “He shoots a 14-year old girl from behind then shoots me twice in the leg; that’s the most cowardly thing I’ve ever heard.” Showing the court the extensive scars that still cover much of her body, she said: “I have no problem showing my scars, I look at them as a symbol of victory. We have to pay a price for democracy but we won.” One of Breivik’s youngest victims and the stepdaughter of Roger Ingebrigtsen, the deputy defense minister, Schwenke wore her wavy brown hair cut short enough to expose the scars on her neck, shoulder and throat. “I may not be proud of these scars but I wear them with dignity,” she said. Breivik killed 77 people on July 22, first detonating a car bomb outside government headquarters and killing eight, then gunning down 69 people, mostly teenagers, at the ruling Labour Party’s summer camp on Utoeya Island. The 10-week trial is largely focused on the issue of his sanity to determine whether he will be sent to prison or to a mental institution, and witness testimonies are crucial to establish his behaviour during the killings. A first psychiatric exam found him insane but a second opinion drew the opposite conclusion. The 33-year-old rightwing extremist is intent on proving that he is sane so that his anti-Islam ideology, as outlined in a 1,500-page manifesto, will not be considered the ravings of a lunatic. Breivik has confessed to the killings but has refused to plead guilty, insisting they were “cruel but necessary” to stop the Labour Party’s “multicultural experiment” and the “Muslim invasion” of Norway and Europe. If the court finds him sane, Breivik will face Norway’s maximum 21-year prison sentence, but that term can be extended for as long as he is considered a threat to society. If he is found criminally insane however, he will be sent to a closed psychiatric care unit for treatment.