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The Bergen football and handball referee was charged with various matters, including sexual relations with children. He acknowledged most of the charges and now the sentence is ready.
The 29-year-old man has been sentenced in the Bergen District Court to 5 years and 6 months in prison on various charges. He is also sentenced to compensate the victims.
This is confirmed by development assistance attorney Tom-Daniel Karlstad to Nettavisen on Friday.
He says that he has learned of the outcome of the case, but has not had time to carefully familiarize himself with the court’s assessment.
– It is recorded that the accused has been sentenced to a penalty and payment of reparation. A repair, of course, will never remake, or repair, what the victims are exposed to, but it is a discretionary patch on the wound determined by the court, assistant attorney Karlstad tells Nettavisen.
The online newspaper contacted defender Bertil Rønnestad on Friday. He is currently speechless.
– I have not yet read the verdict or reviewed it with a client. So I have no comment at the moment, Rønnestad tells Nettavisen.
A decision from the district court can be appealed and it is currently unknown whether the sports judge will seize the opportunity. In that case, you must appeal within two weeks from the date the sentence was rendered or served.
The sports referee appeared in Bergen District Court from September 28 to October 2, and in the five-page indictment he was charged with various criminal offenses against a total of 27 victims, including:
– For having had sexual relations with children under 16 years of age.
– For having had sexual relations with children between 14 and 16 years of age or for forcing a child between 14 and 16 years of age to carry out acts corresponding to sexual relations with themselves.
– Having incited children under the age of 16 to engage in sexually abusive or other obscene behavior.
– For having obtained or another sexual relationship due to abuse of position, dependency or relationship of trust
– For having produced, acquired or possessed the representation of sexual abuse of children or the representation of sexualized children.
The man appeared as a repentant sinner in court and repeatedly apologized for his own actions.
– It’s terrible to sit here and know what you’ve done, he said on the way.
Here you can read more about the case:
It was in August that Hordaland prosecutors brought charges against the man after conducting an extensive investigation.
Over a hundred people are said to have been questioned and a large amount of data material has been examined by the police.
The 29-year-old had previously been unpunished and had no comment on the certificate of good conduct when he was arrested in July 2019.
NFF Hordaland was notified of the referee in August 2018, 11 months prior to his arrest, but was allowed to continue refereeing matches and be active in the environment.
Several of the charges relate to episodes that occurred after the warning came in August 2018.
– Things could have been done differently
Knut Berge and NFF Hordaland believe they did what they could at the time.
– The case was handled the best we could based on the information we had on the table at all times. With the decision in hand, one might wish things had been done differently. But evaluations and decisions were continually made and taken on the basis of facts known and available at all times, Berge told Nettavisen recently.
The man has been in custody since he was arrested on July 8 last summer.
At that time he was a widely used referee in various sports. He has also judged at the elite level in one of the sports.
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