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The team leader is said to have committed an aggravated violation against his own player in the Norwegian Cup. A club is in shock. “Here we have lined up for you, and then you do something like that? Damn.”
VESTLANDET (Nettavisen): In 2016, a grenade was thrown in a small football setting in western Norway.
Later, a sports team in the Bergen area learned that one of the club’s shop stewards had been placed in pre-trial detention for various online abuses against children in the Philippines. He was part of the so-called Dark Room case that the police handled.
A few years later, when the impact of the grenade was about to subside, the bomb arrived.
The same team leader was charged with extremely serious rape against one of the club’s players during a Norwegian Cup tournament in 2005, and repeated assaults on the same girl for two consecutive years.
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Team leader charged with aggravated rape of a minor in the Norwegian Cup
What does such a case do with a small soccer environment?
Few will speak
The online newspaper traveled west to learn more about how the sports team lived through a scandal of such tragic dimensions.
Easier said than done.
The club, which we have to anonymize so as not to help identify the victim, declines to comment.
We have been in contact with the president of the board and other relevant people in the club, but they do not want to have anything to do with the matter.
Even when Nettavisen points out that we want to know more about what the club is doing today to counteract such abuse, and that there are certainly many parents with children in the club who want to know that they are serious, they want to be interviewed. .
We also contacted other people who were in the club in various roles when the rape and abuse allegedly occurred, but this is obviously a sensitive matter.
Finally, there are two people who agree to tell their story.
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“Ida” was just a girl when the coach raped her. Today he fights a desperate battle to get him out of the sports environment.
– A violent anger
The two have been an important part of the club for several years, and after some time of reflection, they agree to speak with Nettavisen.
We must also keep these people anonymous for the sake of the victim.
– People still talk a lot about what happened. There is a fierce rage in the air after what he has done. Many fear that he will want to return here and live as before if he gets out of jail. So many are honest that they will hit it directly, there are several who say.
The two people who now agreed to tell their story worked closely with the perpetrator at the same club for several years.
The online newspaper knows their identity and has seen extensive documentation that they had a close relationship with the defendant.
– We were probably more cursed, because we had been with him for years and supported him in difficult periods. We felt like we were good for him, but then something like this came up …
The indictment establishes that the man, who is the team leader of a girl under the age of 16, allegedly committed a serious violation of her after they traveled together to Oslo to participate in the tournament in the summer of 2005.
The man is said to have asked the offended girl, who was a player on the team he was leading for, to meet him in a room at the school where they were staying for a conversation.
Then it is said that he locked the room and committed the rape.
It was carried out in a particularly painful or offensive manner, the indictment says.
– Today we see that it was a mistake
The prosecution has been given access to the online newspaper, but chooses not to reproduce the details here for the sake of the victim and his family.
An environment is in a state of shock.
The two people say they have spent a long time processing what happened.
– He’s been drunk, he’s embezzled, but we’ve always given him another chance. “He’s the father of …” we said all the time. We protect him, because he eventually committed suicide too, and ended up having to pay the money back and move on. Today we see that it was a mistake, it should have been reported, says one.
They were with the defendant in the Norwegian Cup for two years when he was the club’s Norwegian Cup coach. The third year, when the abuse happened, they were only there one day to watch games.
– But I remember well what the school where they lived was like, and I remember well the room where he and he must have committed the abuse, says one of the people.
– What memories do you have of the defendant’s behavior in the Norwegian Cup?
– Organized most of the things, traveled the day before the others and arranged everything practical. He took on a lot of responsibility to fix things and received a lot of praise for the work he did. It’s horrible to think about, says the other.
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– Then there came a day in 2016 when he was arrested and charged with a series of cyber attacks. How did you react when you found out about a man you had worked closely with in children’s and youth soccer for many years?
– I remember the police came and picked it up at work, but we probably didn’t understand the scope. We were very worried about our son, because he was also part of the football community here.
– It was above all a feeling of betrayal. “Here we have lined up for you, and then you do something like that? Damn.” Since we understood gravity here, we were incredibly cursed.
– We did not think it was possible that it could get worse
The two speak of an environment and an area that is no bigger than everyone knows who the perpetrator’s mother and father are, who his brothers are and the son has been part of the same club for many years.
– We are aware of the shame that this implies for them, and we have learned how devastating such a case can be for family, friends and acquaintances.
The online newspaper has been in contact with a close relative of the accused.
The person in question understands that we are writing this case, but does not want to comment.
– He was first arrested for cyberbullying against children in the Philippines. But then news came that he has been charged with aggravated rape in the Norwegian Cup against a girl for whom he was responsible, a girl you also know well. What was it like to receive that news?
– We did not think it was possible that it could get worse. I was very angry. She was very close, she was a girl that we care a lot about and that we know has suffered a lot. I’ve thought a lot about whether there are any signals I need to pick up. Should we have understood? But we did not succeed, says one of them today.
– They were together in the Norwegian Cup for several years. How was the club manipulated for security when the violation is said to have taken place? Could something different have been done by the club?
– We felt we had a very good plan. We had a social manager for all the teams, we made sure everyone watched each other’s matches, we had rules of order that everyone had to sign, we felt we were very “up to date”. But we are not talking about sexual abuse as a topic, it was not how it can be today.
– Have you known the victim since you found out what should have happened between 2005 and 2007?
– Yes. I’ve talked to her and she obviously thinks this is difficult. At least I have said that I think it is great that she dares to tell what she has experienced and that I support her a lot. She is brave.
– Denies criminal guilt. Do you think there is a possibility of the victim making this up?
– No. He has no credibility left. What she says is also too concrete for there to be a fabrication. I was in the Norwegian Cup and I remember the small room in which the defendants lived. We never thought she would have made this up. Why the hell would she have been exposed to such a load if it wasn’t true?
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He was placed in VIF through the exchange program of the Norwegian Sports Confederation: he is now accused of abusing two children under the age of 14
The two have chosen to tell their story in the hope that there is something to learn for other sports teams.
As we sit and talk, they tell a different story of the same club from a few years earlier.
At that time, it was a girl under the age of 13 at the club who trained strength in the gym together with one of the players from team A. There he allegedly assaulted her, which led her to contact and tell the coaches that in turn They should have informed the club management.
In a meeting with them, it is said that they de-dramatized the story and asked him not to tell it to others.
– The most important thing is to take care of the children
The police should never have been involved and the club should not have informed the girl’s parents.
– When I found out, I called my mother and asked her to report it to the police. What happened after? The A-team player, who was not from Norway, left the country as soon as he learned that the police wanted to speak to him, they say.
That episode burned them both. They think it says a lot about how difficult it is for clubs to handle reports of abuse and harassment in a proper way.
– These are people we know, real people who have raised their own children in a good way. How could they just rule this out? The most important task in a club is looking after the children. But we learned a lot from that case, because it told us a bit about how difficult it is to handle such things, no matter how appropriate or well-intentioned one is.
– In this case, the club was moving up the divisions and they protected that player instead of taking the 13-year-old seriously. It was much easier for them not to believe what the 13-year-old said. I think you can learn a lot from the mechanisms that exist. Clubs must have a way to address these issues. Nor should the clubs consider such cases, they should let the police do it.
The Norwegian Cup violation case will take place in the Bergen District Court from January 18 to 25. The two have not decided whether they will pursue the hearing case, if it is open for it.
If they leave, it will be to support the victim.
– Have you had any contact with him since the arrest in 2016?
– No. I’ve thought a lot about what I would have done if I had found him again. I think I was completely honest and said “I’m sorry I helped you the times you came to us and told me you were having a hard time.” In hindsight, it turned out that he exploited children in the rudest way.
– Do you feel that he owes you an explanation?
– We have thought about it a lot and we would like to meet you to tell you that we are incredibly disappointed and sorry for what you have done. We have felt the need to confront it. But now time has passed, and now we have only hope that he will be arrested and never return here.
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Here’s how they want to teach kindergarten kids about sexual abuse: – It’s not about scaring them.
The man’s defender will not be interviewed about the case. But he has sent this statement to Nettavisen:
– I can affirm that the defendant does not admit criminal guilt for what the prosecution has accused him of having done some 15 years ago. Beyond that, I have no comment on the case, writes defender of man Torbjørn Kolås Sognefest in an email.
Here you can read all our cases in the article series on abuse in sport.
Do you need to report sexual abuse of yourself or others? Contact the police here .
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