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INVESTIGATED: The special unit based in Hamar believes that the policeman has abused his position to have sexual relations. Photo: Jo E. Brenden / VG
The special unit believes that the policeman in his 30s sexually assaulted the vulnerable minor on a civil patrol during working hours.
– This is a very serious matter. For a police officer to exploit a girl is serious in itself, the offended woman’s lawyer, Inger Johanne Reiestad Hansen, tells VG.
Now, the Special Unit for Police Affairs has charged the policeman in his 30s for having abused his position to have sex with a particularly vulnerable girl under 18.
The girl was over the age of consent, but under 18 when the abuse allegedly occurred, and was, among other things, under follow-up by the child welfare service.
He is said to have contacted the policeman via the Internet in the summer of 2018. He then worked in the sheriff’s office in eastern Norway.
– My client is particularly vulnerable and that makes her very vulnerable. He, as a policeman working on this, should have understood.
It happened on the patrol
According to the indictment, the two are said to have had contact on Snapchat, among other places, during the fall and winter of 2018, where the police officer is said to have sent sexualized content to the girl.
In the new year of 2019, the police officer is said to have picked up the teenager from the corresponding senior high school at which she was a student and then drove her to an address where he had sex with her. All of this must have happened while he was on duty as a policeman, and on a civil patrol car belonging to the sheriff’s office where the man worked.
According to the indictment, he also sent sexualized content to her on Snapchat and another website for a few months after the sexual relationship.
For this reason, he is accused of having seriously violated his duty of service.
VG has contacted the defender of the policeman, Lars Erik Skotvedt, who does not want to comment on the case.
– Rechargeable case
In September last year, the policeman was arrested and interrogated when the matter became known. He was released after being questioned because the Bureau of Investigation, among other things, believed that there was no danger that evidence would be lost.
The attorney for the Bureau of Investigation, Kaja Løhren Borg, does not wish to comment on the case at this time and refers to the prosecution.
Assistance attorney Reiestad Hansen says the case is and has been a burden on the offended woman.
– It’s been a long time before the case comes up, and it’s stressful waiting for a trial, he says.
Photos sent from the murder case
The police officer is also accused of violating the duty of confidentiality while participating in the investigation of a murder case last year. According to the indictment, he sent a total of three images of various confidential information, including parts of an interrogation, to his partner through Messenger.
The case is scheduled at Øvre Romerike District Court on December 14. Four days have been reserved for the case.
