Expect the investigation to continue if Viggo Kristiansen is acquitted – NRK Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
The Attorney General is now considering whether Viggo Kristiansen should be acquitted or prosecuted again for the murders of Lena Sløgedal Paulsen (10) and Stine Sofie Sørstrønen (8) in Baneheia in Kristiansand on 19 May 2000.
The recommendation from the Attorney General is expected to arrive soon.
If Kristiansen is acquitted, the parents’ lawyers expect the investigation of the murders to continue.
– The matter will then not be resolved. You are then left with an unsolved murder of the one girl, says aid attorney Audun Beckstrøm.
Co-convict Jan Helge Andersen was only convicted of murder and complicity in the rape of Sørstrønen. If Kristiansen is acquitted, the murder of Paulsen will thus remain unsolved.
– For the parents, this is difficult. Then they will be left and not know, and that is not a good feeling, says the aid lawyer.
Beckstrøm mentions that the police have carried out many new DNA tests in the case, but believes that more remains to be done.
– We believe that there are still opportunities there, that there are still things that the police should look into more closely.
Wants a new trial
In a chronicle in VG criticizes Beckstrøm and the parents’ other legal counsel, Håkon Brækhus, the press for prejudging the Baneheia case. They believe that the press allows themselves to be led by management leaks.
– One must be aware that the leaks about the investigation that have appeared in the press do not necessarily give the full picture of the investigation, says Beckstrøm.
– It has been said now by commentators in the press that the evidence against Jan Helge Andersen is so clear that there must be a new case against him. It is far too early to draw conclusions.
Beckstrøm believes that the best way to clarify the matter would be a completely new trial.
– It is only then that the matter will be disclosed in a good way, also for the public, he says.
– The alternative to a new trial will be on the recommendation of the Attorney General, who will inform the case, and it will be a form of paper exercise.
Neither Viggo Kristiansen’s defender, Arvid Sjødin, nor Svein Holden, defender of Jan Helge Andersen, wanted to comment on this case.