A 43-year-old woman with seven children has been sentenced to Norway’s longest possible prison term, convicted of murdering her own father and a man with whom she had two of her children. She filed an immediate appeal.
A court in Kristiansand, where the woman lives, was found to have drugged both men, then drowning her father in a bathtub in 2002 and strangling her former live-in partner 12 years later. TV2 reported that she was also charged with drugging another former boyfriend on repeat occasions and swindling him.
Police had dug up the remains of her father, killed 17 years ago, to check for the same drugs found to have killed her former partner in 2014. They believe her motive in the first murder was a large inheritance from her father, while in the second murder she wanted full custody of their two sons.
The woman had denied guilt but has consistently refused to answer police questions and refused to testify in court. She had confided to an alleged friend in detail, however, about how she could kill a troublesome boyfriend. The friend turned out to be an undercover investigator.
Court-appointed psychiatrists concluded that the woman was not psychotic at the time of the murders but they believe she has “strong psychopathic tendencies” and various personality disturbances. Family members, the fathers of her other children and state child protection officials had also testified in court regarding violent episodes and death threats from the woman. Her children who are still underage are being cared for by others close to them.
Prosecutors had sought Norway’s toughest jail term, 21 years with release only pending a new judicial evaluation, because of the strong possibility she will commit new serious crimes. The term is meant to protect the public from the most dangerous criminals, and can result in a life sentence.
newsinenglish.no staff
