Prison may hire friends for Anders Breivik

Prison authorities are considering hiring people to socialise with the mass killer Anders Behring Breivik should he be found guilty and sentenced to a long spell in jail, to avoid him being kept in total isolation.

The director of the Ila prison, Knut Bjarkeid, told the Verdens Gang newspaper that security surrounding the man who has admitted killing 77 people last year would make it "impossible to allow normal contact with others".

The prison may therefore allow him to "play sports with the guards and hire someone to play chess with him", said Mr Bjarkeid.