The uncle of one of the victims killed in the Utoya massacre in Norway has spoken of the family’s agony since the tragedy as the gunman goes on trial.

Wye resident the Rev Dr Paul Kirby’s nephew Bendik Rosnæs Ellingsen, 18, was one of 69 people shot and killed by 33-year-old extremist Anders Breivik on the island of Utoya in Norway on July 22 last year.

The teenager, the youngest son of his wife Anne’s sister Signe-Maria, had been on work experience at the Justice Ministry building in the Norwegian capital Oslo where Breivik planted a bomb which killed eight people and wounded more than 200 others.

In a cruel twist of fate Bendik was not at the offices because he had been given time off to enjoy the Labour Party summer camp on Utoya where the shootings took place less than two hours later.

Dr Kirby, the head of chaplaincy services for the East Kent Hospitals Trust, said: “My wife phoned me up and said that a big bomb had gone off in Oslo and said that Bendik’s father Jorn was out of the city and was safe, and more importantly Bendik, who had been working in the very offices that were blown up, was safe on the island.

“It was only as the news began to break that we realised he was anything but safe. It was nearly a week before we knew for sure that he had been shot.”

After the attacks he and his wife, as well as children John, 32, Anna, 29, and James 27, went out to Norway to support their relatives and later for the funeral.

Dr Kirby, a grandfather-of one of Churchfields Way, said: “You hear about these things happening all over the world but it’s only when it comes to someone very close to you that you see behind the news headlines there is agony.

“The family have gone through hell and back over the past how ever many months since it happened. Bendik’s parents were with us over Easter and they’re absolutely devastated.

“My job as a hospital chaplin involves dealing with a lot of bereavement and a lot of grief but I don’t think even I had witnessed the level of agony and despair this guy has caused to 77 families all over Norway. I’ve never seen such grief in my life before.”

Utoya island in Norway where Anders Breivik shot and killed 66 people in 2011

During Breivik’s trial on charges of mass murder and terrorist attacks, which started on Monday, the court heard that Bendik was one of a group shot as they hid in the main cafe on the island.

Breivik has shown no remorse in court, defending the killings by saying he was acting in defence of his culture and his people against multicultralism.

Dr Kirby said he trusts the Norwegian court to punish him for his crimes - despite calls for a harsher punishment than the maximum sentence of 21 years available in Norway.

“I disagree personally with those who say they should change the laws and bring back the death sentence,” he said.

“If it becomes vengeful that’s playing into the hands of extremists. I just feel that the Norwegian justice system will do its job.

"The 21 years can be extended if it’s felt that Breivik is still a danger to the public. He will get his punishment.”