For over a week, the man walked around Bergen to meet a famous artist. Then he broke into an elderly couple.
The man threw a rock through this window and entered the residence through it. Photo: PrivatePublished: Published:
Less than 20 minutes ago
This week, a man in his 20s appeared in Hordaland district court. He is charged with serious threats against an elderly couple on Fjellsiden in Bergen, late in the evening on 14 November last year. The husband spotted him outside the house.
– He was wearing a dark hood and gloves and stood completely still outside the cellar door. I asked who he was and what he wanted, but he stood completely still. I switched to English, but he wouldn’t make himself known. Then he took the door handle, the husband told the court strongly impressed.
This stone was used to break the window. Photo: Private
– Now he has discovered us
The man then went upstairs and stood in front of the kitchen window. His wife called the police. Parts of this conversation were played in court.
– Now he takes a big stone, she said from the kitchen to the police.
– Now he has discovered us, she continued.
When the man threw the rock through the kitchen window, she screamed at the police.
The stranger crawled in through the window while the married couple entrenched themselves in a bathroom on the second floor. They pressed their legs against the door so that he would not enter.
– We are in danger, he is razing the whole house, said the woman.
The police replied that they were on their way.
The couple heard the intruder on the first floor. Then he came up in others, where they were. Twice he tried to get into the toilet.
– We perceived that he was capable of killing, said the husband.
The glass doors in the cupboard (to the left) were broken. Photo: Private
– Why wasn’t he caught?
Then the police came and broke down the front door. They got control of the intruder. A pocket knife was found on him which he had found in the house. The couple are still scared and are considering moving.
A police officer who took part in the action understood that they felt their lives were in danger. He said that the defendant had said that he was looking for a woman with the same name as the famous artist.
– Why wasn’t he caught, asked the husband in the house.
Parts of the glasses that were broken. Photo: Private
In January and August last year, he traveled to Bergen, according to his own statement, to meet the well-known artist. On November 4 he returned. Again, the goal was to meet the artist.
– I wandered around and slept outside. It was extremely cold and very painful, he told the court.
It emerged that staff at the housing association spoke to him on the phone on 8 November. They were worried.
The picture was taken in Klaus Hanssen’s road on Friday 11 November. On this day, it rained over 50 millimeters in Bergen.
– I started to hallucinate
On 10 and 11 November there were floods in Western Norway. This week he drifted along the streets in a rain-soaked Bergen.
One evening, security guards discovered him sitting on a bench at Bystasjonen. He was wet and cold and impossible to get in touch with, Høgseth told the court.
– How were you, she asked.
– Terrible. I began to hallucinate, he answered softly.
The man was at Sandviken twice last autumn. Photo: Rune Sævig (Archive)
He was sent by ambulance to hospital and then to the psychiatric emergency department at Sandviken Hospital.
It was not assessed that he had an increased risk of violence, according to the public prosecutor. He was discharged with help for a train ticket east. However, he did not make it home.
Public prosecutor Benedikte Høgseth is the prosecutor, while lawyer Ivar Abrahamsen defends the man in his 20s. Photo: Per Lindberg
Risk of violence
A few days later, he ended up in Fjellsiden, where he entered the couple’s house and was arrested. He was again taken to Sandviken Hospital. Two days later, they assessed that he did not have serious mental disorders. They informed the police who arrested him.
Since then he has been imprisoned and lived in an institution in the east.
State prosecutor Benedikte Høgseth asked that he be sentenced to compulsory mental health care. She believes he was insane last autumn and that society must be protected. Høgseth said that his purpose was to kill when he entered the house on Fjellsiden. He has also said that he has had thoughts of harming others and has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
He is also accused of making serious threats against his father, beating him and slashing at him with a knife. The man himself denied that he had hit or slashed at his father.
– There is a risk of serious violence or, in the worst case, murder, said the public prosecutor.
The defense asked for acquittal
In court it emerged that he has become healthier when he has taken medicine, but that he has also stopped taking medicine and treatment, such as talk therapy. He has justified this with social anxiety and side effects.
Defense attorney Ivar Abrahamsen asked that he be acquitted and said that he wanted to move home to the housing association and receive help there. He is not subject to drugs and the medication works, Abrahamsen pointed out.
He is also being looked after at the housing association, and he has agreed to follow-up and medication, said the defender.
He believes it is impossible to know why he got into the house on Fjellsiden and revealed that the defendant thought the artist was in the house.
Andreas G. Gjerstad and Ketil J. Ødegaard have been appointed by the court to assess the man’s mental health. They believed that the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia seems well founded and that he needs treatment for a long time to come.
Published:
Published: 17 December 2023 20:05
2023-12-17 19:05:51
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