– Evidently they disappointed him – VG

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– People shouldn’t die in prison. Children shouldn’t die in prison. They obviously disappointed him. He was not treated, Ottesen tells VG.

Sunday told VG the story of Jonatan Krister Andersenwho committed a double murder at the age of 15.

Andersen had severe mental problems during his sentence and took his own life in Mandal Prison in the fall of 2021. He was 20 at the time.

– It’s just desperate and painful. I hope that the correctional service, for both children and adults, can learn from this, Ottesen says.

The homicide investigator was an expert in the appeal case against Andersen in 2017.

– I said that instead of evaluating it as a risk to others, one should evaluate the risk it could be to oneself, he says.

Ottesen says he reacted to the way Andersen was mentioned, both in court and in the media.

When 16-year-old Andersen fell ill without a professional basis, Ottesen believes.

Neither the media nor the court plaintiffs took his age into account sufficiently, says the murder researcher.

– I think people are more shocked that a child commits murder, but there are no professional reasons to believe that children are immune to murder, he says.

Violence researcher: he wants a limit of 18 years

When children commit crimes, prison should be a last resort, and used only for the shortest time possible, according to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Violence researcher Ragnhild Bjørnebekk believes that the minimum age for criminals should be raised to 18 in Norway and that no one under the age of 18 should be put in prison.

– I’m one of the few who think so. Going to prison when she is under 18 is problematic in terms of further development and identity, Bjørnebekk tells VG.

– At the same time, this does not mean that young people who commit serious crimes should not be left to nothing. The important thing is to do good analyzes of the individual and find out what the risk factors are. Then you have to work on the treatment, preferably under duress, because it is important when there are such serious crimes as in this case, says Bjørnebekk.

The researcher on violence points to child protection institutions as alternatives to prison for minors under 18.

He doesn’t know the story of Jonatan Krister Andersen well enough to say something about the system around the 20-year-old suicide failing.

Homicide researcher: – They made him sick

In 2017, the district court concluded that Andersen was to be sentenced to 11 years of custody when the case was heard in the Kristiansand district court in 2017.

The court found Andersen’s actions were brutal and incomprehensible and that he killed the first victim for a trifle, an argument over NOK 600 after a hashish deal.

Homicide researcher Ottesen also answered this.

– Detention is a special reaction where the criteria must be met. It shouldn’t be something to turn to when survivors want to punish severely or when court actors don’t understand a certain murder. There were so many actors who believed the murders were incomprehensible and that there was something very wrong with a boy killing for a trifle.

– But the most typical murder in all societies and at all times is a young man killing another young man, for what seems nonsense to a third person, says Ottesen.

– They then made the defendant sick without any qualifications.

I disagree on the prison sentence

Ottesen previously studied rehabilitation programs and sentencing conditions in the Ila Detention Center.

Emphasize that children, adolescents and young adults are not fully developed, neither psychologically nor biologically. What an adult sees as nonsense isn’t necessarily so for a child or young adult, she says.

– NOK 600 is something completely different for adults than for a child. Regardless, it’s the social resources you have that matter to young people, the status you have in the gang or the network, she says.

The district court ruling states, among other things, that Andersen did not seem genuinely repentant for what he had done, even though he had said it verbally.

– The fact that he did not cry cannot be taken as an indication that he has no empathy or remorse, says Ottesen.

In the Supreme Court the sentence was changed to 11 years of imprisonment. Ottesen was among those who opposed Andersen’s prison sentence.

– I didn’t agree with giving him a prison sentence. I didn’t agree with giving him a prison sentence, whenever as a society we have prison sentences for children. What I criticized was the basis for entrusting him with custody.

The reports on Andersen, which Ottesen read, showed, among other things, that he had a low risk of committing violence in the future and that he did not suffer from severe personality disorders.

– There was no reason to believe that he would not regret what he did in the same way as an adult, or that there was something special about the murder that made him extremely dangerous, he says.

I do not want to comment

Bjørnebekk says it is extremely rare for children to commit murders in Norway.

– When it happens that children kill, then you should do everything to remove the internal and external risk factors and do everything possible to strengthen the development of the person, so that he becomes a person capable of coping. What we also know about children who have big problems is that any transition can be a new risk factor.

– Being placed in a new institution, a new foster home or a new prison can carry a new risk factor, but it’s not necessary if they are met with a good plan and are not in contact with other criminals, says Bjørnebekk.

Neither the Kristiansand District Court nor the Agder Court of Appeals wish to comment on Ottesen’s criticisms.

Mandal Prison writes the following in a comment:

– After all the serious incidents in Norwegian prisons, a debriefing of the staff involved is carried out, as well as a review of the incident, then in order to identify causes and points for improvement, writes Geir Jensen, director of the interim prison of Agder prison in an e-mail to VG.

You can read how Mandal Prison responded to criticism from inmates and Andersen’s family his.

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