Former EDL member denies link to Norway massacre extremist Breivik

A DUNSTABLE man accused of being the mentor of Anders Behring Breivik – the far-right extremist behind the brutal Norwegian youth camp massacre in July – has denied knowing the gunman, instead claiming he has been framed.

Paul Ray, 35, was thrown into the limelight after the national media said Breivik referred to him in his manifesto as his mentor – an Englishman called Richard.

Mr Ray, a founder member of the English Defence League (EDL), is behind the far-right internet blog Lionheart and is known as Richard The Lionheart.

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But the former Queenbury School student told the Gazette: “I believe in anti-jihad but not at the cost of 80 young kids on a summer camp being murdered. It is a heavy burden to take on board.

“I was willing to accept, in the beginning, that I could have been an influence on him because of my anti-jihad position and I was willing to take responsibility for my words. But a couple of days into it, I realised that what he did wouldn’t go with anything that I’m about.

“If he’d killed a load of Islamic fundamentalists I would say I could see some correlation there, but there isn’t.

“He said he wondered if his mentor is one of the people who founded the EDL. Then you look at my website and it makes me look as guilty as anything. He hasn’t outwardly named me but he has put intelligent pointers in my direction.”

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Mr Ray, who grew up in Dunstable but has lived in Malta for the past two years, contacted Norwegian police himself and flew to the European country last week.

He was interviewed for 15 hours before flying home to Dunstable, where he plans to stay for the forseeable future.

“The people dealing with the case, the police, the investigators, know full well that I’m not anything to do with Breivik,” said Mr Ray. “But the world’s media have got the story and it sounds like a good story to them because of all my stuff. As far as I’m concerned, I’ve been framed.

“I don’t know him, I’ve never met him, I didn’t know anything about him until it happened. I’ve had no contact with him whatsoever.

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“Whoever did this act knew the media would do this and pointed the finger at me at the beginning. I was an easy target. That’s their biggest mistake. There’s no way I’m going to sit back and take what they’ve done to me. It was a hostile act to remove me from the anti-jihad field.”

Mr Ray left Dunstable two years ago after he received death threats. And despite being a founder member of the EDL, he is no longer part of the group, which is led by Luton man Tommy Robinson.

Mr Ray says he withdrew his membership because of EDL “connections to racist and political groups”.

He said: “I’m not a racist. My views are anti-Islamic fundamentalism. People say Tommy Robinson formed the EDL but it was me. They’ve been destroying the image of the EDL.”

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Mr Ray now hopes the Norwegian police will officially rule him out as a suspect in the Breivik case and declare him a witness instead in order to clear his name – especially in his hometown.

“This is my local community,” he said. “The whole world’s media is saying I’m Breivik’s mentor and I’m not. I just want to put that across. I’m just trying to fight to clear my name.”

When the Gazette asked Mr Ray why he decided to come back to Dunstable, he simply replied: “It’s time.”

He added: “I’ve been away for two years and it is time to be back.”