Abuse in sport | Sports judge accused of having sex with children, now the trial begins:

BERGEN (Nettavisen): Five days have been set aside for the main trial and the most serious charges carry a maximum penalty of 6 years. He is also charged with various other crimes.

25 offended

On Monday, the sports referee is due to appear in Bergen District Court, and in the five-page indictment he is charged with various crimes against a total of 25 victims, including:

– For having had sexual relations with children under 16 years of age.

– For having had sexual relations with a minor between 14 and 16 years of age or for forcing a minor 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.

– Admits criminal guilt on the part of the brother

Defender Bertil Rønnestad is silent before the case begins on Monday.

– The defendant has admitted criminal guilt in most of the circumstances for which he is charged, which means that the case can be completed in significantly less time than without his confessions. The defendant wants to compensate him, expresses remorse and would like the actions towards those offended in the case to be undone, Rønnestad writes in an SMS to Nettavisen.

– You say you acknowledge most circumstances, but what are you denying?

– We will have to take that in the main audience, responds Rønnestad.

He did not want to be interviewed about the case before the main hearing begins.

– Extensive research

Police attorney Christine Møen Wisløff will not comment on the criminal charges to the media until they have been to the main hearing.

– How has it been to investigate this case?

– It is an important case with many victims who have taken a long time to investigate. He has been in custody for just over a year. There has been extensive investigation, he tells Nettavisen.

– What has been particularly demanding?

– It was demanding to review large amounts of chat. There have been many interrogations of the offended and repeated interrogations of the accused. He has recognized most things, she says.

– You know what he denies about the charges?

– Yes, but I will not go into that, says Møen Wisløff, and says that the five reserved days in court will be a kind of hybrid between the main hearing and the confession case.

No comment on the certificate of good conduct

It was in August that Hordaland prosecutors filed 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 man in his 20s had previously gone unpunished and had no comments 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 as 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 tells Nettavisen.

The man has been in custody since he was arrested on July 8 of last summer.

At that time he was a widely used referee both in handball and football. He has also judged at the elite level in one of the sports.