Court of Appeal to release Gunn Merete Lode’s killer from custody

Borgarting will release Danish Kim Poulsen, who was convicted of Gunn Merete Lode’s murder in 2001, from custody. – He’s very happy, says Poulsen’s lawyer.

Kim Poulsen, 57, was deported from Norway in 2008 from the day he was released. In the judgment of the Borgarting Court of Appeal, which was handed down on Monday this week, the condition for parole is that Poulsen leaves Norway and does not return.

Poulsen has been serving a sentence in Ila Prison since 2005.

Murder and rape

In 2005, Kim Poulsen was sentenced to 18 years in prison for killing Gunn Merete Lode, 32, in Bryne in 2001, as well as for the assault and rape of two women in Denmark. The prison sentence was handed down with a minimum term of ten years by the Gulating Court of Appeal.

Lode’s murder was unsolved for a long time, but the Danish man’s DNA was eventually linked to the murder. Poulsen has never acknowledged the murder. She has said that she was in contact with Gunn Merete Lode, but denies that he was the one who killed her. The woman was alone on her way home one night in August 2001 when she was captured, threatened and killed with a knife for no reason.

– is very happy

The minimum term for the sentence expired in August 2013, while the term for the arrest sentence is estimated at August 10 of next year.

Kim Poulsen has applied for release from custody three times. The last time was in 2019, and on April 1 of this year, the Asker and Bærum District Court handed down a judgment rejecting the petition. Poulsen, however, appealed the verdict to the Court of Appeal and now Borgarting has come to the conclusion that the killer should be released. The probationary period after release is set at the longest period of detention.

– I spoke to him a while ago and he is very happy, Poulsen’s defender, attorney Harald Grape, tells NTB.

He believes the verdict is correct and notes that the two experts, psychiatrists Kjersti Anne Lyngstad and Randi Rosenqvist, believe that the risk of releasing Poulsen is acceptable.

Among other things, the two have come to the conclusion that there is no longer any basis to believe that Poulsen suffers from a dyssocial personality disorder, as the experts believed in 2005.

However, Rosenqvist said in court that he believes it is problematic that Poulsen has yet to admit to having committed the crimes for which he has been convicted. She ignored the possibility that he could not have carried out the actions, and believes that it is most likely that he has paraphrased the facts of which he himself was convinced: that he “lies to believe it himself.”

Family home

– Poulsen will come home to the family in Denmark, where he has a mother and a sister. She will also resume contact with her children and have a normal life, Grape says.

The judgment of the Court of Appeal states that Danish social authorities will follow up with Poulsen for the first time after his return.

Not legally binding

Grape says he has not heard anything about whether the prosecution will appeal the verdict.

– But I doubt it. This verdict is so clear that I think the Supreme Court will reject an appeal, says the lawyer.

Kim Poulsen will be released when the verdict is final.

The prosecution does not rule out appeal

– The core of the case is an evidentiary evaluation of the issue of risk of recurrence. In principle, there is no opportunity to appeal this to the Supreme Court, prosecutor Oddbjørn Søreide tells Aftenbladet.

In court, Søreide ruled that there is a danger that the case will be repeated.

– Now I want to read carefully the premises of the sentence and see if there are other aspects of the case that should be appealed, he says.