A court in western Norway has convicted the 19-year-old man charged with the rape and murder of a 98-year-old woman on New Year’s Day. He was sentenced to spend the next 19 years of his life in prison.
The court found him guilty in the brutal case that shocked the nation last winter. DNA evidence at the scene backed up the prosecutor’s case against him, and the court ruled there was no reasonable doubt that he was the rapist and murderer.
The young man, who had a history of violence, had claimed innocence in the attack on the elderly woman in her small apartment in a senior citizens’ complex in Os, outside Bergen. He said he had no memory of it either, claiming he was too drunk to remember anything after a night of partying. He testified that he couldn’t understand how police could have found his handprints in blood next to the victim’s body.
The court also ordered the 19-year-old defendant to pay NOK 200,000(USD 35,000) in compensation plus NOK 147,000 in court costs to the victim’s daughter.
The victim was found beaten and dead on the floor of her apartment around 9pm on January 1st. She had managed to ring a health-care alarm and a nurse arrived quickly at the scene, in time to witness the attack through the window and see the assailant run away.
newsinenglish.no staff
