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Norwegian policeman accused of using his position for sex

A policeman in Western Norway may lose his job over allegations that he used his role as an officer of the law to get sex from a number of women.

Published: 6 January 2017 09:41 CET

Norwegian policeman accused of using his position for sex

The man risks a permanent ban from working with the police. Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB scanpix

The officer, who is in his 40s, also faces charges of displaying offensive behaviour toward two additional women.

One victim, a woman from Karmøy, needed to report a stolen car trailer to the police. Later that same day, she was sent 70 text messages from the officer offering her massages, local newspaper Haugesunds Avis wrote.

In several of the messages, he also encouraged the woman to send photos of herself so he could “enjoy them”, an indictment from the Norwegian Bureau for the Investigation of Police Affairs (Spesialenheten for politisaker – NBIPA) revealed.

The following day, the officer went to the woman’s home, where the two of them allegedly had sex.

In another case, the man is alleged to have aggressively pursued a relationship with a widow who had returned to Norway to collect her dead spouse’s urn. In yet another, he is said to have sent a number of text messages to a female police cadet that posed intimate questions.

During the NBIPA investigation, the man denied any guilt but did admit to having sex with the women who reported him.

The officer was arrested and detained in August 2015 and was held in custody for nearly three weeks. He was also suspended from his job and risks being permanently barred from working as a police officer.

The case against the officer begins in Haugaland District Court on Monday.

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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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