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16-year-old pleads guilty in Norway double murder case

A 16-year-old has pleaded guilty of the murders of Tone Ilebekk and Jakob Hassan in December 2016.

Published: 19 June 2017 12:58 CEST
16-year-old pleads guilty in Norway double murder case
Kritstiansand District Court during proceedings. Photo: Tor Erik Schrøder / NTB scanpix

Jakob Abdullahi Hassan (14) and Tone Ilebekk (48) were both stabbed to death on the premises of the Wilds Minne primary school 5th December 2016. Hassan was a student at nearby Fiskå school. 

Hassan was stabbed 28 times and 48-year-old Tone Ilebekk 32 times in the 5th December 2016 murders.

Court proceedings have established that Ilebekk attempted to help Hassan, who was lying on a bench after being attacked, and thereafter became a victim herself.

At the time of his arrest, police described the then-15-year-old as part of the murdered 14-year-old's social circle, but said no connection was found between 15-year-old and Ilebekk, a mother of two and a worker at a nearby daycare centre. 

READ ALSO: Norwegian teen confesses to schoolyard double murder

The accused appeared calm and smile as he entered the courtroom at Kristiansand District Court Monday, reports broadcaster NRK. He looked away and turned to his legal counsel to ask questions as relatives of the victims entered the courtroom, according to the report.

He also told the court that he had “hated Hassan for a long time” and linked the murder to a debt of 600 kroner ($71) that he claimed the 14-year-old owed him, NRK reported from the courtroom Monday.

One of the key questions for the court regarding sentencing will be whether the murder of Hassan was planned.

The maximum sentence the 16-year-old can receive is 15 years, since he is under the age of 18.

Police officers involved in the investigation of the crime are scheduled to give testimony during the first day of the trial.

Special investigating officer Cato Meijer and commanding officer Arivd Bjelkåsen of police security agency Kripos will be among the witnesses to be questioned in court.

The trial will be carried out behind closed doors, with only press and family of the victims present, due to the age of the accused, who recently passed his 16th birthday.

Proceedings are expected to take three days.

SPORT

Norwegian police charge Olympic champion’s father for domestic violence

Norwegian police said Monday that Gjert Ingebrigtsen, father and former coach of 1,500m Olympic champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen, had been charged with domestic violence against a family member.

Published: 29 April 2024 16:41 CEST
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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