– Of course, the conclusion that there was only one perpetrator could have had an impact on the trial, says Viggo Kristiansen’s defender Arvid Sjødin to news. For more than 20 years, Viggo Kristiansen has denied having anything to do with the Baneheia murders. Last week, he was believed by the public prosecutor, who did not rule out that one person may have been behind both murders. It is the same conclusion that experts in Kripos arrived at already in 2000. – The perpetrator profile shows that things that did not fit with their opinion were removed from the documents, says Sjødin to news. Hunted unknown perpetrator Stine Sofie Sørstrønen (8) and Lena Sløgedal Paulsen (10) were found raped and killed in Baneheia in May 2000. For several months, investigators chased one or more unknown perpetrators, and in the hunt for those who were behind it, it was a so-called perpetrator profile was started in early summer. AID: Former deputy head of Kripos, Knut Holen, says the perpetrator profile was never intended as evidence, but as an aid. Photo: Mathias Revheim-Rafaelsen / news Kripos experts were connected with the investigation management in Kristiansand to provide them with assistance. The group was called the GMP group, and was established in 1998. – We gained access to all information from the investigation management. We were at the scene, got all the tactical material and all the tips that had come into the case, says Knut Holen, former deputy head of Kripos to news. Holen says that the perpetrator profile was never intended as evidence, but as an aid in the search for who was behind the murders. The former Kripos summit says that a lot of time and resources were invested in the work. NOT COMPLETED: Former crime boss Arne Pedersen believes that a perpetrator profile was never completed in the case. Photo: Per-Kåre Sandbakk Former crime chief Arne Pedersen believes what Sjødin and Holen say is not true. – No perpetrator profile was ever finalized in the case that was handed over, or otherwise made known to the investigation management, says Pedersen to news. He also says that this was a trial project. – It was conveyed that it was a trial project when we were asked if it was okay for those in the trial project to follow the case, which they did in the first weeks of the investigation. This is the Baneheia case * Stine Sofie Sørstrønen (8) and Lena Sløgedal Paulsen (10) were raped and killed in Baneheia in Kristiansand on 19 May 2000. They were found two days later. * Viggo Kristiansen and Jan Helge Andersen were sentenced respectively to 21 years’ detention (10 years’ minimum) and 19 years’ imprisonment for the rape and murder of the two girls. * Andersen confessed – Kristiansen has always claimed that he is innocent * The commission for resumption of criminal cases had the case on its table for the seventh time in the summer of 2017. * In February 2021, the commission decided that Viggo Kristiansen will have a new trial of the criminal case. One perpetrator In the team that worked on the perpetrator profile, psychologist Brit Røisli from the intelligence department at Kripos assisted, among others. On 10 June 2000, Chief Criminal Officer Arne Pedersen stated that they had had several meetings with the psychologist. He told VG that they had “said what opinion we had of the perpetrator”. – We want her assessments of who may be behind the murders. Røisli has experience, material and contacts in Europe and the USA that can be of use to us, he further stated. The perpetrator profile concluded with one killer. – It was based on findings on the spot and experiences from other countries. It was a holistic assessment, says Holen. Holen says that the report was “more or less finished” when the police in Kristiansand went to arrest Jan Helge Andersen and Viggo Kristiansen on 13 September 2000. – When the report was to be finished, two people were arrested. The management in Agder thus no longer needed our assistance and report, he says to news. Was removed The perpetrator profile was put aside, and was not part of the extensive documentation that was presented when the murder case was heard in court. The perpetrator profile again became a topic when Viggo Kristiansen’s then defender Sigurd Klomsæt tried to have the case reopened. When they tried to sue the commission in 2011 to have Kristiansen’s case reopened, he had obtained the old report. He described the report as a key piece of evidence that was evaded in the case. – It has been a long, hard battle to arrive at the material regarding the perpetrator’s profile, which the lawyers want to present in a new case, Klomsæt said in the Oslo district court in 2011. The court rejected this, and wrote that the perpetrator’s profile did not contain anything that would have influenced the outcome of the trial, and that the report pointing to one perpetrator had been a trial project. Kripos stated the same. Knut Holen testified in the district court in 2011. Then, as now, he believes it is wrong to call the perpetrator profile created in the Baneheia case a “trial project”. – We used a lot of resources and came to a conclusion. Then I would have expected it to be used and assessed against the investigative steps taken, despite the fact that two people were arrested, he says to news. Jan Helge Andersen’s defense attorney, Svein Holden, tells news that even if the prosecutor’s office goes for the acquittal of Viggo Kristiansen, that does not mean that there are grounds for bringing new charges against Jan Helge Andersen. – In my opinion, it is clear that the evidence in the case does not provide a basis for establishing beyond any reasonable doubt that Jan Helge Andersen is guilty of the murder and false statement. – I therefore expect that the charge against Jan Helge Andersen will be dropped on the basis of the evidence, says Holden.
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