Breivik bought through British eBay

2011-07-31 17:05

London - Anders Behring Breivik bought chemicals and equipment from British traders as part of a global eBay shopping spree in the months before the Norway massacre, Britain's Sunday Telegraph reported.

The newspaper said Behring Breivik used his eBay account, under the username andrewbrei, to buy sulphur powder for explosives, a protective suit and a drill press vice used for making poison-tipped bullets from British suppliers.

His other online purchases included a tactical rifle foregrip from a Hong Kong-based trader, a zoom spotting scope from a Chinese supplier and a LaserLyte pistol bayonet from a US-based retailer, it said.

The British traders expressed horror at the idea that their goods may have been used in the July 22 attacks in Oslo and the island of Utoya, which killed 77 people and for which Behring Breivik has accepted responsibility.

Andrew Christou, a trader in Enfield, north London, reportedly sold Behring Breivik about 500g of sulphur powder in November. Such sales are legal, but the Norwegian extremist was said to have used it to make explosives.

"My initial reaction when I heard on the news [about] what he had done was shock and horror, but when The Sunday Telegraph pointed out that I was unwittingly involved, by supplying one of the ingredients, my shock and horror was multiplied 10-fold," Christou said.

In December, Breivik also bought tools including a drill press vice from Tool Timez, based in Sheffield, northern England, which he used while making poison-tipped bullets, the newspaper said.

Breivik also bought a "Hazmat" protective suit in November from a British academic, Professor Bernie Harris, who lives in the US state of Illinois. Harris said he was "horrified" to learn of how it may have been used.

The Polish authorities said this week that Behring Breivik ordered legal chemicals from a Polish firm but said their contacts were "purely business-related".

The Sunday Telegraph said it had passed on the eBay details to Scotland Yard, but a spokesperson for the police force refused to comment specifically, saying only that "we are liaising with the Norwegian authorities".