Friends of Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik have taken the stand to state their belief that Breivik was a repressed homosexual with crossdressing tendencies.

Four friends have told the Oslo District Court that he accused displayed worrying tendencies in the years leading up to the massacre, including cutting all social ties, moving back in with his mother and using make up.

One former friend said Breivik had shown “feminine behavior and used makeup,” and did not have many long-lasting relationships with women.

“I believed he was in a deep depression or that he was a homosexual who did not want to come out in public about it,” the friend said.

Breivik also had a nose job after – his friends believe – being taunted for his “Arab” nose. Breivik says he had surgergy after his nose was broken in a fight with a Muslim immigrant.

Breivik has confessed that on July 22 2011, he gunned down 69 people at a youth retreat on the island of Utoya. He also set off a bomb in Oslo that killed eight.

After the group of former friends testified, Breivik responded to the claims. He rejected the claim that he had behaved in a feminine manner, said he had never been depressed and admitted that while he wore make up, it was to cover up pimples and was a common practice for men.

He did not comment on the suggestion that he may be a closeted homosexual.