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Suspect’s prints found at 98-year-old’s home

Police revealed on Friday they had found the fingerprints of an 18-year-old suspect at the home in Os, western Norway, of 98-year-old murder victim Hilda Feste.

Published: 24 February 2012 14:09 CET

Suspect's prints found at 98-year-old's home

Photo: Marit Hommedal/Scanpix (File)

Nordhordland district court on Friday morning ordered that the suspect be held in pre-trial custody for a further four weeks following his arrest on Tuesday.

The 18-year-old is charged with raping and murdering the victim on the evening of New Year’s Day.

Defence lawyer Rolf Knudsen said on Wednesday that his client was drunk on the night of Feste’s murder and had no recollection of his movements over a period of several hours.

Hilda Feste was sexually abused before being beaten to death.

Knudsen said the suspect has a job, and his only previous convictions were for traffic offences.

At a press conference on Tuesday evening, prosecutor Asbjørn Onarheim said the arrest had been undramatic.

Onarheim said technical evidence had led police to the 18-year-old, who was questioned at an early stage of the investigation after information emerged about him being seen outdoors in Os on the evening of the murder.

A phone operator in Hamarøy in the north of the country, was the first to realize that Feste was in distress after the 98-year-old set off her emergency medical alarm.

Since the alarm allows for two-way communication, the operator heard what was happening in the apartment.

According to alarm operator service HT Safe, and officials from Os council, the operator placed a call to the town’s home-care service after failing to establish verbal contact with Feste.

The home-care nurse on duty in the building next door to Feste’s was then sent to the woman’s apartment at the Oshaugen care facility.

When the care worker looked through the window and saw the woman being attacked, she retreated to a safe location and notified the police.

The nurse then phoned two of her colleagues who were working nearby. Together, the three of them entered Feste’s apartment, where they found the 98-year-old woman suffering from massive head injuries.

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Norway's ex-biathlon boss jailed for three years for corruption

Norwegian Anders Besseberg, the 78-year-old head of the International Biathlon Union from 1993 to 2018, was found guilty of nine of 10 counts of aggravated corruption during the period 2009-2018, charges he denied.

“I am of course disappointed and surprised about the verdict and some of the judges’ reasoning. I am appealing on the spot,” Besseberg told the court after the judge read out the 67-page verdict over the course of almost three hours.

“The defendant breached the trust that came with his position at the IBU by accepting the benefits,” judge Vidar Toftoy-Lohne at the Buskerud district court said.

The prosecution hailed the verdict.

“There is a lot of money in circulation in international elite sport. The federations manage substantial financial assets and make decisions that are important for both athletes and the business community,” prosecutor Marianne Djupesland said in a statement.

“We hope this verdict can contribute to raising awareness and that it will have a preventive effect,” she said.

Prosecutors had sought a jail term of three years and seven months and a fine of one million kroner ($95,000).

The court did not hand down a fine, but ordered Besseberg to return gifts amounting to 1.4 million kroner.

Besseberg admitted accepting gifts but dismissed the notion that corruption was involved.

“Even if I received expensive gifts and was invited by many to go hunting, I must stress that I never let myself be corrupted,” he told the court during his trial, media reported.

Russian shadow

As head of the IBU when the Russian doping scandal exploded in the 2010s, Besseberg was accused of initially hiding cases of Russian doping in his sport in exchange for favours.

Prosecutors dropped that line of attack, but in Norway, receiving improper favours, even if no services are provided in exchange, is enough to constitute corruption.

Russia’s shadow nonetheless hung heavily over the case.

According to an inquiry launched by Sweden’s Olle Dahlin, who succeeded Besseberg as head of the IBU, Besseberg pushed to hold the 2021 biathlon world championships in Tyumen, Siberia, despite the Russian doping scandals.

The contest was eventually awarded to Pokljuka in Slovenia.

Prosecutors argued that Besseberg went on fully paid hunting trips in Austria and in the Czech Republic, and for seven years drove a leased BMW X5, all paid for by Infront, a marketing company that held television rights to the sport.

They argued he was given three watches worth a total of more than 30,000 euros ($33,000), invited on trips to hunt deer and wild boar, and offered services from sex workers, all paid for by Russian officials.

Asked about an Omega watch worth more than 17,000 euros he received in 2011 for his 65th birthday, he said: “I did not think it was undeserved.”

The court said two of the three watches he received constituted corruption.

Besseberg also denied any contact with sex workers, acknowledging only what he said was a consensual affair with a 42-year-old Russian.

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