Breivik judge caught playing solitaire in Norway court

Confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik sits in the courtroom in Oslo, Norway Friday 1 June, 2012. Norwegian police said they are confident that confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik acted on his own in terror attacks last year that killed 77 people and that they found no evidence he belonged to a Europe-wide anti-Muslim network. (AP Photo/Heiko Junge,Pool)

OSLO -- A judge at the trial of Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was caught playing solitaire on his laptop during Monday's proceedings, the VG newspaper reported.

Ernst Henning Eielsen, one of the five judges for the case, can clearly be seen on court cameras playing the card game.

According to VG, Eielsen was playing the game on a solitaire website, and images showed solitaire in his browser window for up to 16 minutes before the court was adjourned for lunch.

A Swedish expert was testifying while the judge played the game.

A court spokeswoman denied the judge was not paying attention and said the game may have helped him concentrate.

"The judges are attentively following what is being said and what is being presented to the court," court spokeswoman Irene Ramm was quoted as saying by AFP. "There are different ways of staying focused."

Breivik's trial for the mass murder of 77 people in a bomb-and-shooting spree in central Oslo and the nearby island of Utoya last July began in April this year and is expected to last 10 weeks. It is being overseen by a panel of five judges.

Admitting to the killings, but pleading not guilty, Breivik has cited his personal "crusade" against Islam and Western-style democracy as the explanation for his brutal actions, saying that it spawned the multicultural society he loathes.

Click here for more on this story from the VG newspaper.