Jakob Ingebrigtsen, one of the world’s best and fastest runners, will have to train for the next World Championships in the midst of more family drama and a court case against his father and former coach, Gjert Ingebrigtsen. The elder Ingebrigtsen was indicted just before the weekend on expanded charges that reportedly include beating, kicking and otherwise abusing both his son Jakob and a daughter over a period of at least 10 years.
The elder Ingebrigtsen, now age 58, continues to claim that he never subjected any of his children to either physical or psychological cruelty. His defense attorneys quickly objected to the expanded charges against him, while the lawyer representing Jakob and four of his siblings claims otherwise, with some of the charges extending back to when Jakob was “very young.”
Newspaper Aftenposten reported details from the indictment that include several incidents like one in 2008, when Gjert Ingebrigtsen allegedly slapped his then-eight-year-old son repeatedly in the head while screaming at him. A year later, he allegedly kicked his son in the stomach after he’d fallen off a motorized scooter. He also allegedly threatened in 2015 and 2016 that he would beat his son helseløs, literally until he’d become an invalid.
The attorney for the now-24-year-old Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Mette Yvonne Larsen, said the expanded indictment was “as expected” and “extremely serious.” It also describes almost daily sessions of verbal abuse, some of which Gjert himself took public, accompanied by aggressive and threatening behaviour and demeaning harassment. The elder Ingebrigtsen is also accused of abusing a sister of Jakob’s.
Defense attorneys John Christian Elden and Heidi Reisvang, told Aftenposten that Gjert Ingebrigtsens stands firm on his claims that he’s not guilty of the accusations against him. There was no direct comment on the details in the indictment.
On Monday the court for the area in Sør-Rogaland where the large Ingebrigtsen family lives reported that it expects to handle the case during the first half of next year. Since it involves violence within close relationships it has “especially high priority,” with the actual trial expected to take place right after the Easter holidays in a courthouse in Sandnes, south of Stavanger. More than 30 people are expected to be called to testify, including nearly all members of the Ingebrigtsen family and other athletes coached by Gjert Ingebrigtsen, now including Narve Gilje Nordås, one of Jakob Ingebrigthsen’s main rivals in track and field events.
The producer of Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK)’s popular series on the family, “Team Ingebrigtsen,” has also been called to testify. NRK has since taken the series out of its archive of shows that are still publicly available, claiming that the series had become “a burden” for the family. Police investigators, however, need to have access to the series and be allowed to pull clips from it that can be used as evidence during the trial. Defense attorneys have wanted to include them during court proceedings.
The family drama went public in October 2023, when Jakob and his brothers Henrik and Filip wrote in national newspaper VG that violence and threats had been part of their upbringing. Their father denied the claims, but police launched an investigation and first indicted Gjert Ingebrigtsen last spring for abuse of just one of his children, later identified as a daughter. Charges were dropped against others but that led to complaints from the now-estranged sons, and Jakob was later called in for further questioning. Police concluded their investigation in late October and sent their evidence to the state prosecutor, who handed down the expanded indictment late last week.
NewsinEnglish.no/Nina Berglund
