How peace of Scotland has helped me to forget madman’s nightmare rampage
SHE survived an atrocity that left nearly 80 people dead in her native Norway.
Lisa Husby was a teenager working in a youth summer camp when neo-Nazi Anders Breivik went on a 90-minute shooting spree in July 2011.
Terrified, she barricaded herself and a group of children in a cabin – only for him to start firing at them through the window.
Against the odds, she lived to see Breivik arrested and jailed for his bloodthirsty rampage but remained haunted by the memory of her appalling ordeal.
Now, however, six years after the senseless killings that shocked the world, she has finally found peace – and love – after setting up home in Scotland.
Swept off her feet by a handsome oil worker from Edinburgh, she has begun a new life studying in St Andrews, Fife.
Last night, in an exclusive interview with The Scottish Mail on Sunday she said that although her memories of the massacre will live with her forever, Scotland has taught her to feel safe again.
She added: ‘It put a lot of years onto my life. But I’m never scared now – not here. I think I learned to adapt and now I feel like the luckiest person alive.’
Miss Husby was 19 and working with the youth branch of Norway’s Labour party at a summer camp on the island of Utøya – 24 miles from Norway’s capital Oslo – when the attack happened.
Around 600 people aged from 14 to 35 were attending the camp. On Friday, 22 July, at 3.26pm, Breivik began his murdering spree with a bomb in a high-rise building in the capital which killed eight people.
News soon reached those on the island.
Miss Husby said: ‘Obviously everyone was shaken up. People were trying to go home, but there were no flights, no trains, nothing. So we decided we were going to have a barbecue later, we’re all going to have fun. You know, “This is the best and safest place to be” – we kept repeating that to everyone.’
However, safety was an illusion as Breivik, disguised as a police officer and armed with a pistol, semi-automatic rifle and hundreds of bullets, had already boarded a ferry to the island. Around 4.50pm, he opened fire.
At first, Miss Husby did not realise what was happening. She recalled: ‘It sounded like firecrackers. We didn’t take it seriously at all.’ But as panic spread people began running in all directions.
She said: ‘Some even started running towards where the sound came from. It makes no sense why they did that – maybe it was shock.’
As Breivik neared, the shots grew louder and Miss Husby and the others she was with ran for their lives.
She said: ‘He was right behind us, I could feel the shots, he was shooting around us all of the time.
‘I could actually feel the wind from the shots making my hair move. We got into the forest and I never looked back.’
The group, including a wounded teenage girl, barricaded themselves inside a cabin.
Sheltering beneath bunk beds and in wardrobes, they lay in terrified silence as Breivik prowled outside.
Miss Husby said: ‘We heard someone try to open the front door and it was him. He said, “Police!”
‘Everybody started screaming because we knew the police weren’t there yet. He has a very highpitched voice – it doesn’t sound like a man of authority.
‘When no one opened, he started shooting through the door and the big glass window.
‘I think we were in there for about an hour. One girl was having an asthma attack – she was squeaking in a corner but we couldn’t do anything. We were just sitting there quietly trying to hold each other. Trying to be calm.’
The killing only ended when Breivik surrendered to police at around 6.35pm. Leaving the island under police guard, Miss Husby finally saw the full extent of the horror.
‘I think once you’re in shock you see everything from above. I saw a couple of people dead. They had transferred an ambulance to the island and there was blood flowing out of its door – I’ve never seen that much blood.
‘I decided I didn’t want to look back. But the boat landed and there were ten bodies on the shore – just lying with blankets on top of them.’
A year later, Breivik appeared in court, gave a Nazi salute and admitted killing 77 people, many of them children. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Miss Husby, along with other survivors, sat through the trial. Sighing, the student said: ‘Every time he opened his mouth, I was like “Shut up – just shut up”.
‘But at the same time I feel sorry for him. He was someone’s child once, he was someone’s grandchild.’
Afterwards, her life changed dramatically. She said: ‘I left my job and I started university, but it didn’t work.
‘I had depressions, I couldn’t focus, I couldn’t read, I had flashbacks. I just couldn’t do anything.’
Although suffering muscular pain caused by post-traumatic stress, she took a job at an oil firm that allowed her time off for therapy – where she met Richard MaxwellPenny, a 30-year-old project manager from Edinburgh.
She said: ‘He was very British. He came into the office with his signet ring and his beautiful blazer, and
‘The wind from the shots made my hair move’
his lovely accent, and I was like “Wow”. We really connected. He always believed I could be better, do better and do more.
‘I’d been kind of watching my life go by until that point.’
In 2015, he invited her to visit his home in Edinburgh, then took her on a date to St Andrews where she saw the university for the first time.
She said: ‘When I got here, I never felt unsafe in any way. It was May, exam time, and there were still students around.
‘We walked around and I saw someone sitting on this beautiful staircase reading at St Salvator’s Hall of student residences and I was like “I have to go here, I just have to go here”.
‘I loved the beach. And nothing about it reminded me of Norway. So coming here is just like a sense of calm.’
To her delight, Miss Husby was accepted to study for a degree in management and geography.
She said: ‘It really does feel like a new start. Do I wish that I was able to study when I was 18, the same age as everyone else? Yes. But it’s a dream come true for me. I really, really enjoy it. I’ve got close friends – I’ve even started golfing on the Old Course.’
Now in her second year at St Andrews, she is happy to be close to both Richard and his family, who live in Perth.
But, best of all, she can say: ‘My mum is never afraid when I tell her I’m walking home.’