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Housemaid jailed for killing boss over will

A Norwegian housemaid who was set to inherit a fortune from her millionaire employer has lost her appeal against her conviction for his murder.

Published: 19 December 2014 17:36 CET

Housemaid jailed for killing boss over will

The judges in the Court of Appeal on Thursday. Photo: Torstein Bøe/NTB scanpix

Pål Stener Johannessen, 90, was found dead in his Oslo apartment in March last year. The maid had been set to inherit his entire 15 million krone fortune. However, before his death Johannessen had been planning to change his will and leave his money to another staff member, a 36-year-old home help.

In its judgement, the court said that the 62-year-old had left the apartment after caring for Johannessen, but had later returned. She locked herself in and suffocated him in his bed, probably using a pillow or some other kind of fabric.

An autopsy revealed injuries consistent with suffocation, but police said they were unable to say definitively how the victim had died.

The 62-year-old maid had denied killing her boss and broke down in tears when the Court of Appeal in Oslo upheld her conviction. The jury took just two hours to convict the woman.

The home help has now been awarded the entire contents of the will.

The sentence of 13 years is a year longer than the standard 12-year sentence for murder.

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Norwegian police charge Olympic champion's father for domestic violence

Jakob Ingebrigtsen and two of his brothers, Henrik and Filip, who are also athletes, shocked Norway last October when they accused their father of being violent.

“We grew up with a very aggressive and authoritarian father, who used physical violence and threats as part of his upbringing,” the brothers wrote in an op-ed for newspaper VG. “We still feel a sense of discomfort and fear that we have felt since childhood,” they added.

Police opened a probe into the abuse claims and on Monday said prosecutors had decided to charge Gjert Ingebrigtsen, 58, with domestic violence against one of his children.

According to a source close to the case, the acts in question do not concern the trio of known athletes but another, younger child.

Over a period of four years, from 2018 to 2022, Gjert Ingebrigtsen allegedly manhandled, insulted, threatened and hit the child in the face with his hand or with a towel.

Responding to questions from AFP, Therese Braut Vage, who led the investigation, would not confirm this account.

Police said they had closed investigations into other events concerning the six other children in the home either due to a lack of evidence or, in one case, because the statute of limitations having expired.

Gjert, who coached Jakob until after the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo — where Jakob won the gold — has always denied the accusations against him.

“As far as the dismissed cases, we agree that there is no evidence to prove that Ingebrigtsen committed any wrongdoing,” his lawyer John Christian Elden told AFP on Monday.

“For the rest, Ingebrigtsen disputes the description of the facts on which the indictment is based — and he therefore does not admit his guilt,” he continued in an email.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen is the most successful of the three brothers, twice winning gold in the world championships 5000m in 2022 and 2023, as well as the Olympic 1500m gold.

The 23-year-old is also preparing for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer.

Henrik, 33, and Filip, 31, were European champions in the 1500m in 2012 and 2016 respectively.

After breaking with his sons, Gjert Ingebrigtsen shocked Norwegian athletics by becoming the trainer of another runner, Narve Gilje Nordas.

The Norwegian Olympic Committee has said that Gjert will not be granted accreditation for the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, as was the case at last year’s World Athletics Championships.

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