Viggo Kristiansen has spent most of his adult life in prison. For a crime he always said he didn’t commit. He had been imprisoned since 2001 for allegedly raping and then stabbing two girls aged eight and 10, along with his friend Jan Helge Andersen, who heavily implicated him in the investigation.
Over the years, Kristiansen has repeatedly denied having anything to do with the crime. On Friday afternoon, the 43-year-old man got the news he had been waiting for for more than 20 years: the Norwegian public prosecutor dropped all charges against him and asked the Court of Appeal to acquit him. At a press conference, Attorney General Jørn Sigurd Maurud expressly apologized for the “injustice committed”.
Investigators searched for the perpetrator for four months
On May 19, 2000, the two girls Lena Sløgedal Paulsen and Stine Sofie Sørstrønen disappeared on a trip to a bathing lake in the Baneheia recreation area, and their bodies were found two days later. The search for the perpetrator who raped the two girls and then killed them with a knife continued throughout the summer. Two men were arrested in September: Jan Helge Andersen and his friend Viggo Kristiansen.
Anderson admitted to the rape and one murder, but blamed Kristiansen as the initiator of the crime. Based on his testimony, Kristiansen was sentenced to 21 years with the option of preventive detention on June 1, 2021. Anderson himself was also convicted of rape and murder, but because of his cooperation with the investigators he received a lighter sentence and has been free for several years.
Viggo Kristiansen denied ever being at the scene of the crime, both during the investigation and the trial. His cell phone was logged in about 900 meters away at the time of the crime. But the incriminating testimony of his friend and the fact that he was repeatedly convicted of sexual molestation and once of raping an underage girl in his youth weighed on him. In addition, the secured DNA traces could only prove that two different men had raped the girls.
DNA traces today speak against the thesis of several perpetrators
Kristiansen applied for a retrial five times during his two decades in prison. Experts repeatedly confirmed that he was still dangerous and so the minimum sentence of ten years was repeatedly extended. It was only last year that considerable doubts arose about Andersen’s statement. And the DNA traces, which could now be examined better, spoke against the thesis of several perpetrators.
Kristiansen was released on parole in June 2021. Since then, the police in Oslo have been investigating the Baneheia murders again – until Attorney General Jørn Sigurd Maurud finally announced on Friday that all charges against Kristiansen would be dropped. The official acquittal by a court is still pending, but this should only be a formality.
Kristiansen could demand more than three million euros in compensation
The case “had profoundly tragic consequences, especially for Viggo Kristiansen, who was serving more than 20 years in prison, depriving much of his life of his life, and for his relatives,” Maurud said. The daily newspaper Aften post referred to the Baneheia case as den “biggest judicial scandal of the post-war period”. “The only thing we, society, can offer is compensation in the form of money,” Maurud said. According to the lawyer for 43-year-old Kristiansen, his client could demand the equivalent of more than three million euros in compensation from the Norwegian state.
On the other hand, according to the 2002 verdict, Kristiansen should actually have to pay the surviving dependents of the two girls who were killed compensation equivalent to almost 165,000 euros. his lawyer shared but according to the daily newspaper Verden’s walk on Saturday withthat his client will not pay the sum: “Viggo Kristiansen cannot serve a fine and pay money for something he did not do.”
If the parents insist on compensation, a new procedure begins. This time a civil case in which Viggo Kristiansen would have to prove his innocence again. Even if Jan Helge Andersen is to be investigated again, as Attorney General Maurud has announced, the murder of Lena Sløgedal Paulsen and Stine Sofie Sørstrønen remains unsolved for the time being and their parents still have no certainty, even after 22 years, what actually happened in Baneheia back then has happened.