– I felt a burden because I had the girls

The two best friends were with Jostein Sørstrønen on the night they were killed in Baneheia. On Tuesday, the father gave an emotional testimony in court. Three meters away sat the man who killed his daughter.

– They discussed whether they should go out rollerblading or whether they should swim first. They unfortunately decided to bathe first, said Jostein Sørstrønen in an emotional testimony in court on Tuesday.

He is the father of Stine Sofie Sørstrønen (8). This afternoon she had a visit from her best friend Lena Sløgedal Paulsen (10). It was therefore Jostein Sørstrønen who was responsible for the girls that evening.

He knew they could swim and therefore let them go alone.

– The girls swam like two fish. Baneheia felt safe. It was a natural gem for me until that night, he said in court.

When they did not return home as agreed, he went up to Baneheia to look for them. Just after 10pm that evening, he called the police and the three other parents. He describes the evening as absurd.

Sørstrønen and Paulsen were raped and killed in Baneheia in Kristiansand on their way home from their swimming trip that evening, 19 May 2000. Two days later, on Sunday 21 May, they were found partially covered and hidden.

– When they were found, life came crashing down. It completely collapsed. It was a disaster for me. I felt a burden too, because I was the one with the girls, he said.

– Relief at the arrest

Four months later, Jan Helge Andersen and Viggo Kristiansen were arrested and charged with the murders.

– Then I felt a sense of relief. We got something tangible to believe in, said the father in court.

He describes the media coverage as a big recognition, with pictures of the children on the front pages of the newspapers day after day. He describes the years after the murders as very difficult.

– It was absolutely terrible, said the father, who could not bear to follow the trials in 2001 and 2002.

In the autumn of 2000, Jan Helge Andersen admitted to having killed one of them, the 8-year-old daughter of Jostein Sørstrønen. Viggo Kristiansen has always denied having been at the crime scene. Kristiansen was acquitted in the case two years ago, after serving over 20 years in prison.

Now the prosecution believes they can prove that Andersen also killed the ten-year-old. So: that he raped and killed both of them alone. Andersen refuses. He says it was his best friend Viggo Kristiansen who carried out the murder of the 10-year-old.

Andersen’s mother: – Someone you can trust

The mother of the defendant Jan Helge Andersen also testified in court on Tuesday. In the spring of 2000, Jan Helge Andersen worked on the Danish boat Color Line, where his mother worked. Andersen worked as a cabin attendant.

The mother described her son as someone you can trust, very calm, someone who doesn’t say much.

– He doesn’t take up much space in the room, so to speak, said the mother.

She said that her son has been taught what is right and wrong throughout his upbringing. And that you can read immediately if he is lying. That he is easy to read.

She said that Viggo Kristiansen and Jan Helge Andersen started hanging out as friends at secondary school and that they were more together in the years before the murders.

– Didn’t notice anything special

She says she didn’t notice anything special about her son when she came home from work on the evening of May 19, the day the girls were killed. But she believes her son was much quieter, tired and much more in the room in the time that followed the murders.

– It must have been hell for him, the mother said in court.

The mother says she has talked a lot with her son about the murders and assaults. In court, the mother recounted what her son had told her about the murders. And what he thinks happened.

According to the mother, the son has told that he killed the youngest girl after Kristiansen had threatened him to do so. It is an explanation Andersen has maintained for 24 years. He is said to have never spoken to his mother about the abuse.