Baneheia defenders asked for acquittal – still pointing towards Viggo Kristiansen

Crime and justice: The defenders of Jan Helge Andersen went to great lengths to drag acquitted Viggo Kristiansen into the Baneheia case again as a possible perpetrator during the final proceedings in Sør-Rogaland District Court on Thursday.

Based on the fact that there is considerable and real doubt as to whether the defendant Jan Helge Andersen could really have been alone in the murders in Baneheia 24 years ago, lawyer Svein Holden announced early on that a claim for acquittal would be made in the case.

It was Holden’s colleague, lawyer Celine Krogh Fornes, who dropped the claim for acquittal, alternatively that Andersen should be considered in the most lenient way.

The verdict in the case falls on July 2 at 9 a.m. Then Jan Helge Andersen must appear in court in person.

The defenders completely disagree that the evidence in the case is so clear. Holden highlighted several things about the relationship between Kristiansen and Andersen, and circumstances related to the crime itself, which he believes contradicts the idea that there is only one perpetrator, and that it should be Andersen alone.

– Personally, I think the crime scene screams that this has been more than one perpetrator, said Holden.

– The court must be critical of what Jan Helge Andersen said in the explanations about conditions both before, during and after the acts. It is perhaps special that we as defenders go against our own client’s explanation, but that is the only right thing to do in this case, said Holden.

When Holden concluded his part of the proceedings a couple of hours later, he said that the court still could not completely disregard the client’s explanation.

– In any case, there must be a real doubt that one cannot rule out that it could be as Jan Helge Andersen explains. We do not have coverage in the evidence to rule this out as a real possibility

– You cannot easily show that the results only come from one person, said lawyer Celine Krogh Fornes when she started the review of the DNA material in the case.

On Wednesday, prosecutor Andreas Schei said that the most important evidence in the case is DNA findings from Andersen on both victims, which are compatible with the fact that they were deposed during sexual assault. He pointed out that 15 DNA matches were found that match Andersen and none from another possible perpetrator.

Krogh Fornes was critical of this when she carefully went through the DNA evidence that had been presented in the case.

– It is important to point out the nuances in the findings. Only a few are complete profiles, the others are partial profiles that do not necessarily originate from Andersen. There are few certain findings in the case. To say that there are 15 findings from Andersen may be an over-interpretation, said the lawyer.

In the proceedings, Holden highlighted Kristiansen’s explanation that there were two of them, he called into question the telephone evidence and the timeline and argued that Kristiansen could nevertheless have been involved in the murders. He also believed that Andersen’s personality, as a shy and reserved type, was at odds with luring the two girls into the forest to the crime scene. It suited the confident and outgoing Viggo Kristiansen better.

– Then we have to weigh that against the possibility that Kristiansen may have acted in that way. Viggo Kristiansen was outgoing and outgoing, Andersen was introverted and cautious, said Holden.

– I assume that the court monitors the case’s information and subsequent argumentation, so that the defenders stay within the international obligations to which the process is bound, says Kristiansen’s legal aid lawyer Brynjar Meling to NTB.

On Wednesday, the prosecution argued that the DNA evidence and telephone evidence in the case suggest that Andersen was alone during the murders, and that he should therefore also be sentenced for the murder of Lena Sløgedal Paulsen (10). The public prosecutor submitted a request for two years’ imprisonment, the maximum possible as Andersen has already been sentenced to 19 years’ imprisonment in the case.

When the defenders started the proceedings, lawyer Svein Holden said that the court must be critical of the client’s own explanations to the police in the case.

The question of DNA has been central to the basis of the new case against Jan Helge Andersen and consequently also during the proceedings.

Andersen’s defenders went to great lengths to argue that Viggo Kristiansen may still have had something to do with the murders. Kristiansen, who was sentenced to 21 years in custody and who spent almost 21 years in prison, was acquitted in December 2022. During the trial against Jan Helge Andersen in Sør-Rogaland district court, his legal counsel warned against new accusations being made against him.