A dancer who often appeared on television in Norway was sentenced to 15 years of special custody aimed at protecting the public, after he was convicted of raping eight women and both abusing and raping his live-in partner several hundred times.
“He has shown an ongoing and strong will to rape,” the judge in the Oslo City Court claimed in what’s considered a landmark rape ruling in Norway because of its relatively lengthy term.
Julio Kopseng, age 37, will have to serve at least nine years before being eligible for probation. He appealed his sentence after repeatedly denying any guilt, and insisting that the sex he had with the women who’d filed charges against him was always voluntary. He claimed he was only charged because he was well-known from his appearances on NRK and TV2, and suggested the women’s charges were motivated either by revenge or a desire for financial gain.
He was often described as attractive, nice, energetic and charming, also by his victims, but subject to abrupt personality change. Suddenly and surprisingly he would turn aggressive and threatening, and attack them, they testified. Court psychiatrists worried that his “anti-social and psychopathic” tendencies lessened chances for treatment, with the court ruling that custody known as forvaring was thus necessary, since it can be extended indefinitely.
newsinenglish.no staff
