A 13-year-old girl who was the victim of an unprovoked stabbing while walking to school last week has been released from hospital in Tromsø. Her 61-year-old assailant, meanwhile was ordered held in custody for at least four weeks.
He still can offer no explanation as to why he approached the girl in a churchyard adjacent to her school in Borkenes, not far from Harstad, and suddenly stabbed her in the stomach. She managed to stagger on to the school, but collapsed on its stairs.
Newspaper Harstad Tidende reported that police plan to question her after she was resettled at home. They also continue to question the defendant, who has been held at a psychiatric hospital and undergoing testing.
“He understands what he has done, but doesn’t understand why,” his defense attorney, Alf M Solvin, told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK). “He had no motive.”
newsinenglish.no staff
