The short version
- The trial against Jan Helge Andersen for the murder of Lena Sløgedal Paulsen (10) on 19 May 2000 in Baneheia continues. He denies criminal guilt.
- The police have presented the timeline of witness observations for 19 May 2000
- Andersen has maintained that he and Viggo Kristiansen were the two who committed the murders
- Kristiansen was acquitted in 2022
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Jan Helge Andersen entered courtroom 1 in Sør-Rogaland District Court in a blue jumper and sweatpants.
He takes a seat to the left of his defender, Celine Krogh Fornes, and sits with his arms crossed.
It is Police Superintendent Ole Fjørtoft in the Oslo Police District who on Friday continues to go through the timeline they have made for 19 May 2000.
He said on Thursday that much of the information was gone when the Oslo police started the new investigation.
On Friday, he will complete the presentation of the witness observations they have collected and reviewed.
PS: The court was on inspectionWhen the court visits a place to gain a better understanding of the case. in Baneheia on 18 April. You can read more about that here.
A witness has explained that he heard several short “boy screams” a little after 8 p.m. in the direction of the crime scene.
Fjørtoft says that they have not been given clarity on what “boy scream” means, and that no other witnesses who heard screams that night have been found.
Another witness in Fjørtoft’s review has explained that at around 20.20 he hears loud rustling noises by the stone stairs at the crime scene. The police estimate it to be 20–30 meters west of the discovery site.
– He stops and listens, but hears nothing more, says Fjørtoft.
He adds that it is the police who have set the time after having reconstructedTo recreate an event based on available information and evidence to understand what happened. the route of the witness.
At a point between 20:35 and 20:40, according to the police’s estimate, there was another witness who believes she heard sounds in the terrain near the crime scene. She thought the sound might come from people in the area, but heard no one talking, explains Fjørtoft.
The Baneheia case explained
The police superintendent says that witness descriptions often do not correspond to reality, and that there are several witness observations that do not agree with each other.
People who have been in one place a lot find it easy to mix up days, he explains.
Also read: The murders in Baneheia: This you must know
The last observation
Then follows one of the students who bathed in the 3rd pool at the same time as the girls that evening.
He doesn’t remember much from it today, so state prosecutor Johan Øverberg reads from his statement from June 2000.
The witness and a friend left the 3rd stamp at around 18.50, and as the police see it, this is the last, safe observation of Sørstrønen and Sløgedal Paulsen.
Read background: The lessons of destiny in Baneheia (from 2021This case was published in 2021, and does not reflect developments that have occurred since then.)
Met Andersen in Baneheia
A witness who was in Heimevernsungdommen with Jan Helge Andersen tells about a running training he had in Baneheia on 18 May 2000, the day before the murders took place.
The witness says he and a friend met Andersen in Baneheia that evening, but warns that it is difficult to remember what happened almost 24 years ago.
– As I can remember, he sat leaning against a tree trunk. As far as I can remember, he seemed a little absent and sullen.
Andersen has explained about trips in the area that evening, also that he seemed a little down.
In criminal cases, the accused has the opportunity to comment after the witnesses have finished.
– I can’t remember being depressed, says Andersen in his comments.
Swimming hall meeting
Øverberg reads from an interview from July 2000 in which the witness explained having met Andersen in a swimming pool to take the pentathlon markMilitary pentathlon includes shooting, running, swimming, hand grenade throwing and cross-country running. (SNL) at the end of May. Then the witness believed that Andersen had said that he was part of the search operation for the girls.
– Yes, I remember him mentioning that he had been with and easy up there, says the witness in court.
He says that in retrospect he has thought that it must have been something Andersen did on his own, as he himself had not received a summons to search through the Heimvernsungdommen.
– I don’t remember taking the pentathlon mark, and I certainly don’t remember being in a swimming pool with the Home Guard, Andersen says in his comments.
Childhood friend
A witness who knew Andersen from “childhood” says that he last had contact with the defendant when Andersen was arrested.
The witness explains that he did not notice anything on Andersen after the murders in Baneheia.
He says that he and Andersen were close friends, until Andersen started hanging out with Viggo Kristiansen, when he was a guy the witness didn’t like being around.
The witness says that Andersen and Kristiansen had common interests in the military and cycling, as he understood it.
Andersen’s defender Celine Krogh Fornes asks the witness why he did not like being with Kristiansen.
– I do not know. I don’t remember that now, he replies.
In an interrogation of the witness, he had previously explained that Andersen had said that he “wanted to go to war to kill”.
The witness confirms in court that it must have been said.
Andersen has a comment on that:
– I can’t remember that I used those words, but I remember that I said that I wanted to get out because the right person in the right place can change the world, or people’s lives, he says.
VG’s Krimpodden has followed the case closely with daily episodes. You can hear them via VG+ or at Podme. The summary is open:
Presentation of evidence
On Thursday, Andersen was allowed to leave courtroom 1 in Sør-Rogaland district court when the explanations of his late father were read out.
After that, he returned to the courtroom, when police officers from the Oslo police testified about the possible illegal material found on Andersen’s digital devices.
Subsequently, the old interrogations of Kristiansen and Andersen became the subject of analysis.
Then followed a review of the timeline for witness observations in Baneheia on 19 May 2000.
Maintained his explanation
Andersen explained himself last week, and his memory became a topic for the court-appointed expertsExperts who give their opinion in a court case on specific topics, such as mental health..
He is accused of killing ten-year-old Lena Sløgedal Paulsen.
The public prosecutor’s officeThe legal representatives who work for the state and who are responsible for prosecuting people accused of criminal acts. believes Andersen killed her with a knife on the evening of 19 May 2000 in Baneheia in Kristiansand.
They believe they can prove that he did it to cover up sexual abuse he had committed against her and Stine Sofie Sørstrønen
Andersen, for his part, has maintained his explanation that there were two of them about the murders, and that the other was Viggo Kristiansen.
Kristiansand city court sentenced Viggo Kristiansen to 21 years in prison for, among other things, the rape and murder of the two girls. Jan Helge Andersen was sentenced to 17 years in prison, and acquitted of the murder of Lena Sløgedal Paulsen.
Viggo Kristiansen and Jan Helge Andersen both appealed the verdict. Kristiansen because he pleaded not guilty, while Andersen appealed the sentencing. The Court of Appeal upheld the verdict against Kristiansen, and gave Andersen a two-year longer sentence. They both appealed to the Supreme Court. Kristiansen’s case was not processed, while Andersen’s was rejected. The sentence of 19 years’ imprisonment was upheld.
Kristiansen maintained his innocence throughout and petitioned for the case to be reopened several times. On 18 February 2021, the Re-admission Commission decided that the case should be looked at again. Kristiansen was released from Ila prison on 1 June 2021, after 21 years behind bars.
It is decided that the Oslo police district will carry out the new investigation. Andersen is charged in the new Baneheia investigation, for the murder of Lena Sløgedal Paulsen (10), for which he had previously been acquitted.
Attorney General Jørn Sigurd Maurud apologized most strongly to Viggo Kristiansen when he presented the Attorney General’s recommendation to the Borgarting Court of Appeal in October 2022. The result of the new investigation was that Kristiansen must be acquitted. On 15 December, an acquittal was handed down in the Borgarting Court of Appeal. Viggo Kristiansen was thus innocently convicted of the murders in Baneheia.
On 12 January 2024, the Attorney General requested that charges be brought against Jan Helge Andersen for the murder of Lena Sløgedal Paulsen (10). On 16 March 2024, the trial against him begins in Sør-Rogaland district court.
Kristiansen was acquitted in 2022 of having something to do with the murders of Stine Sofie Sørstrønen (8) and Lena Sløgedal Paulsen (10). He was summoned as a witness in the case against Andersen.
On Wednesday, Kristiansen was strongly pressured by Andersen’s defenders both about his old explanations and previous offences.
VGs The crime podcast follows the trial closely.
You can hear their reflections on Kristiansen’s days in the witness box via VG+ or on Podme.
