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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Child robbers got off easy

A court in Oslo cut prosecutors’ jail time requests by nearly half in the case of several young convicted robbers of children even younger than themselves. One of the worst offenders was sentenced to 18 months in prison, much less than the three years and eight months sought.

A total of 19 defendants faced trial for the robberies, which attracted wide political and media attention in Oslo last year. All those indicted were aged 15 to 20, while their 24 victims in the robberies that were prosecuted were aged nine to 19, with seven of them younger than 14.

The convicted robbers mostly threatened their victims and stole their mobile phones. The court acknowledged that the cases were extremely frightening and traumatic for the victims, and also robbed them of their feelings of safety and security in their own neighbourhoods.

Nonetheless, the Oslo City Court judge sentenced the young offenders to relatively mild sentences because of their own ages and because they reportedly are undergoing rehabilitation.

Jan Bøhler, head of the Labour Party in Oslo whose own son was among the robbers’ victims, has followed the case closely and claimed he would now work hard to get local community councils, especially in Groruddalen where most of the robberies took place, to help all involved.

“We need to make sure the victims can regain their feelings of security in their local areas,” Bøhler told newspaper Dagsavisen. “We also need to be alert to youth who don’t have anything better to do than hang around shopping centers,” and ultimately get in trouble.

newsinenglish.no staff

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