A Norwegian man in his mid-50s who committed his first murder at age 15 has been convicted for at least the third time of another murder, and is believed to have helped others kill themselves. Steinar Wangen, who’s already in prison for helping another woman kill herself in Strömstad in 2023, quickly appealed his latest conviction.
Norwegian media first started following Wangen after TV2 revealed his role in assisted suicides. News bureau NTB has reported that he committed his first murder, of a seven-year-old girl, when he was just 15 and living in Moss, south of Oslo. He was held in protective custody as a juvenile at the time but released in 1997.
In 2024, he was sentenced to eight years in prison for assisting the suicide of a 76-year-old woman in Strömstad, just over southern Norway’s border to Sweden. He was charged with other assisted suicides in Sweden and avoided convictions. Newspaper Aftenposten reported over the weekend, however, that a Norwegian court in Vestfold convicted him on Friday of murdering another woman in Sweden (Trollhättan), who allegedly wanted to die, by holding a pillow over her face after she’d consumed sleeping pills and alcohol. His trial took place in Tønsberg, Norway because that’s where he lived when he established contact with the Swedish woman.
Norwegian prosecutors sought and received a 15-year prison term for Wangen with forvaring, which means a judge must determine every 10 years or so whether he still poses a threat to society. Wangen denies he helped kill the woman in Trollhättan and appealed on the spot.
NewsinEnglish.no staff
