The verdict from Vestre Innlandet District Court is unanimous.
The 60-year-old has been found guilty of incest and having obtained sexual intercourse through abuse of power. In addition, he has been convicted of possessing images showing sexual abuse of children or sexualizing children.
“The court finds it as a particularly aggravating factor that the accused, as the biological father of the offender, had intercourse with her with the intention of making her pregnant. He can not be heard saying that he “wanted to help her” because she so desperately wanted a child, “the district court writes.
The court believes it has been proven that he regularly had intercourse and committed other sexual assaults on his daughter over a number of years.
– Takes note of the verdict
The man’s lawyer, Andrea Wisløff, spoke to his client on Monday and announced the verdict for him.
– He takes note of the verdict and has not decided whether he will appeal it, Wisløff says.
In his explanation in court, the man admitted partial criminal guilt, but said he was not aware that what he was doing was illegal.
After several years without contact with the daughter, who was placed in a foster home, he took over as guardian for her and moved her from Møre og Romsdal to Innlandet where he became assistant guardian for her.
The daughter was diagnosed with mild mental retardation in her late teens. An expert in court believes the diagnosis may have been a result of her upbringing.
The diagnosis was removed in 2019 after a new assessment of the woman.
- The daughter was diagnosed with a mild mental retardation when the father was charged in the case. Adapted interrogations were therefore carried out in which she described what she had experienced:
Penalty discount
The man was charged in 2018, but the accused was not taken out until the summer of 2021.
Prosecutor Ellen Malmberg apologized for this in the district court and said that it would lead to a penalty reduction. She filed a claim in four years and ten months for the accused man. Defender Andrea Wisløff thought two and a half years in prison would be more appropriate.
The district court ended up in four years of unconditional imprisonment.
According to the court, the long stay with the police is a clear violation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and should be reflected in sentencing.
However, less emphasis is placed on the fact that the husband has partially confessed to abusing the daughter:
The court writes that “… the confession appears to be a consequence of the fact that there is no doubt that he made her pregnant as a result of the sexual intercourse with the victim …”
Compensation and contact ban
The man is sentenced to pay the daughter reparation of 275,000 kroner.
He is also prohibited from pursuing, visiting, or otherwise contacting her. This contact ban is lifelong.
“On the basis of the criminal offenses the accused has been found guilty of, a contact ban is always considered not to be a disproportionate intervention,” the district court writes.
Defendant otherwise consented to the confiscation of several computers and hard drives. Abuse material has been found on these in the form of pictures showing serious sexual abuse of children.
The man was not believed by the court that these were pictures that were already on machines and hard drives that he had taken over.
- The case strongly affected those who were to help the daughter after the child was born. Read more about it here:
Seems the penalty is low
The assistance lawyer for the offended woman, lawyer Aina Heldal Bøe, states that she went through the main features of the verdict with her client on Monday.
Their says that the woman is happy that the father has been convicted after the indictment and that a contact ban has been imposed forever. But the woman is at the same time surprised by what she thinks is a low punishment.
– Her preliminary reaction to the verdict is that she thinks the punishment is very low for what he has done. She is familiar with the legal framework. But at the same time, she thinks it is a short sentence for a very serious case and what she has been subjected to, says Heldal Bøe.
The assistance lawyer says that the woman now hopes that she can now put the case behind her and look ahead.
Midwife notified
The abuse was discovered after the daughter became pregnant. She was halfway through her pregnancy when she and her father visited a midwife in the municipality in the Inland where they lived.
The midwife testified in the trial and said that the pregnant woman met with her father. The girl said little, he said a lot.
When the midwife asked who was the father of the child, the father replied that there was no good choice in him who was the father. And that it was best that he was not drawn in.
The midwife realized that the girl would need close follow-up after the child was born and notified both the child and adolescent psychiatry and the child welfare service.
It was after the child was born that they realized that what had appeared as a grandfather was also the father of the child. The case was then reported to the police.
Also under investigation for other assaults
After the child was born, the daughter was offered to be in a maternity home in the Inland. Those who worked with her there also testified in court. They told of how difficult it was for her when she realized that she could not get the care of her child.
She has contact with the child, but the child lives in a foster home.
In court, the older sister of the victim also testified. She said he has ruined his sister’s life. She claimed that she herself had been abused by her father. It was reported to the police but dropped.
The police in Møre og Romsdal have now started investigating the case again.
- Her lawyer believes that the police put the case in a drawer and that the two cases were not included when the indictment against the father came up in Vestre Innlandet District Court:
The appeal deadline for the district court judgment is set for 29 December.
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