According to lawyer Brynjar Meling, who represents Viggo Kristiansen, the son stayed in the hallway to support his mother. When the mother was going in to testify, the son joined her and sat on the back bench, with Jan Helge Andersen a few meters in front of her.
Follow the trial against Jan Helge Andersen here:
– After Viggo was arrested in September 2000, both my wife, Turid, and I were promised to visit him. But then they just sent in Turid, said Svein Kristiansen when he testified in Sør-Rogaland district court on Tuesday.
Both parents of Viggo Kristiansen testified towards the end of the court day. Viggo Kristiansen’s former friend, Jan Helge Andersen, sits on the dock for the murder of Lena Sløgedal Paulsen in Baneheia in Kristiansand on Friday 19 May 2000.
Svein Kristiansen believes that the police had set up a tactical race after the arrest of his son in autumn 2000, which included both he and his wife.
– Although it was not possible
– They knew that Viggo could not lie to his mother, with whom he had a close relationship. That’s why they sent my wife in to make Viggo crack, says Svein Kristiansen.
When he was allowed to join his son the next time he was in prison, he experienced this as an emotional burden.
Svein and Viggo Kristiansen celebrated their acquittal in 2022 with cake.
Photo: Eivind Pedersen
– It was absolutely terrible. We realized that there was no way he could have done what he was brought in for.
Svein Kristiansen was asked about his knowledge of his son’s close friend Jan Helge Andersen.
– I may have greeted him, or said hello, but I never initiated a conversation with Andersen. He kept his distance.
The mother: – Was most interested in the conflicts
Viggo Kristiansen’s mother told about a kind boy growing up.
– And it was basically nothing special with him until he was bullied at school, says the mother.
She believes that the act has received a lot of attention, and the mother tells of a son who did errands such as shopping for elderly ladies and mowing the lawn.
– But in this case, it is the conflicts that have been most interested in, says the mother.
She talks about the bubble she ended up in when her son was arrested for the murders.
– The first questioning with the police was absolutely horrible. They wanted me to pressure Viggo to confess, she says.
Lawyer Brynjar Meling says that it is a great burden for the parents to testify in the district court.
– But this is a family that stands together through thick and thin. It was important for them to come here today to support their son’s testimony earlier in the trial against Jan Helge Andersen, says Meling.
– It will be nice to finish
Earlier in the day, the court heard a witness who met Viggo Kristiansen after the murders took place in Baneheia. She had a visit from Kristiansen the day before the arrest.
“Tomorrow the answer will come, and it will be so delicious. To finish,” Kristiansen is said to have said to the woman after he went to the police to submit a DNA sample.
He is said to have said that he would then go to the newspaper together with Jan Helge to explain how they had been treated by the police. Viggo is said to have said that he had five witnesses who could confirm that he could not have done this.
– What did you think when the arrests happened?
– I thought it couldn’t be true. I’ve basically been thinking that all along.
The woman says that there are many people in the neighborhood who have not liked Viggo Kristiansen.
– I think he was misunderstood a lot and got a lot of blame for things that weren’t necessarily him.
– Do you feel that Viggo has been misunderstood?
– Yes. And then we know that he has explained that he has invented a lot. Everything from pranks to worse things, says the woman.
