Anders Behring Breivik will tell his trial he regrets 'he didn't go further' as new report declares him sane

By Julian Gavaghan

PUBLISHED: 07:01 EST, 10 April 2012 | UPDATED: 09:34 EST, 10 April 2012

The right-wing extremist who confessed to killing 77 people in a bomb and shooting rampage in Norway will tell his trial that he regrets 'he didn't go further', his lawyer revealed today.

The claim was made after Anders Behring Breivik was found to be not criminally insane by a new psychiatric assessment released today.

Breivik told lawyer Geir Lippestad that he was 'satisfied' with the new conclusion, which comes just six days before he is scheduled to go on trial on terror charges for the July massacre.

The ruling, which contradicts an earlier assessment suggesting he was psychotic, means that he could go to prison instead of being committed to a mental institution if convicted.

Mr Lippestad said the new report means Breivik's testimony will be crucial 'when the judges decide whether he is insane or not.'

Asked whether Breivik will defend his actions in court, Lippestad said: 'He won't only defend it, he will also regret that he didn't go further.'

The new evaluartion was made by psychiatrists Terje Toerrissen and Agnar Aspaas on a request from the court after widespread criticism against the first diagnosis in November.

However, the court in Oslo will take both evaluations into account during the trial, which starts on Monday and is scheduled to last 10 weeks.

If Breivik, 33, is found guilty but ruled psychotic, he will subjected to compulsory psychiatric care instead of imprisonment.

A final ruling on Breivik's mental condition will be made by a five-judge panel near the end of his trial. The latest report could give the judges grounds to sentence Breivik to prison if found guilty.

Breivik himself has insisted he is mentally stable and demanded that the attacks - the most violent in Norway since World War Two - be judged as a political act rather than the work of a deranged mind.

He claims that he detonated a bomb that killed eight people at government headquarters in Oslo, then massacred 69 people with gunfire at a ruling Labour Party summer camp as a bid to punish ‘traitors’ who favoured immigration.

‘The mental health experts' main conclusion is that defendant Anders Behring Breivik is considered not to have been psychotic at the time of the actions on July 22, 2011,’ Oslo District Court said in a statement.

A report completed in November found Breivik to be a psychotic who also suffered from paranoid schizophrenia during and after the July 22 attacks.

The aftermath of a bomb at government headquarters in Oslo that killed eight people

In a preliminary court hearing Breivik denied criminal guilt and suggested his actions were part of a war to save European culture.

If Breivik is found guilty and the judges side with the latest psychiatric report, he could face 21 years in prison with the potential for indefinite extensions to prevent him from repeating his crimes.

If he is eventually ruled psychotic, Breivik would likely face an indefinite period of psychiatric care in a locked facility.

Breivik's defence team has said its primary goal at the trial would be to prove their client sane.

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