Sven Erik Amundsen sat in the witness box in Hordaland District Court on Friday afternoon. He is one of the four children of Marianne Amundsen, who was killed at Nav Årstad last autumn. The son told the court how the sibling group of three brothers and a sister received the brutal message on the morning of September 20 last year. – We have lost our foundation. We have to, in a way, learn to live without her. Every day, every birthday, every baptism, wedding, celebration, we have to experience without her, Amundsen told the court. Was at work abroad A 40-year-old man is charged with murder and attempted murder after attacking the 57-year-old and her colleague Ida Aulin (30) in a conference room. The murder has been described in court as “bestial”. In 29 seconds, the 40-year-old stabbed Amundsen 47 times and Aulin three times. Sven Erik Amundsen said that he was on a work trip in Canada when the murder occurred. He was woken up in the night in the hotel room by a colleague knocking hard on the door and that his mobile phone was full of missed calls and text messages. – The journey home was long. Just my thoughts for company. I quickly formed a picture of what had happened. The brutality, the violence and the blood flowing. These images played on repeat in my head for the next few months, he said. ÅSTAD: The attack took place inside this conversation room at Nav Årstad. Photo: The police – The glue in the family Both the son, and later the brother, portray Marianne Amundsen as the glue in the family. – Mum was open, hardworking and always there for family, friends and colleagues. She did whatever it took to make everyone around her feel good. She was our biggest star, motivator and supporting player, said Sven Erik Amundsen. – Marianne was incredibly important to the family. She was the glue and link between everyone. I have always admired her for how strong she was and how, as a single mother, she managed to create a wonderful existence for her four children, said her brother Pål Gerhard Olsen. He also said that their parents, both over 90 years old, have taken the loss of their daughter very seriously. – I saw the light in their eyes every time Marianne came to visit them. Against all odds, they have survived this shock, but we shield them from the burden of this court case. TØFT: Pål Gerhard Olsen is the brother of Marianne Amundsen who was killed at Nav Årstad. He is demanding an apology from Nav and told the court that they experience a lack of recognition from Nav management that the security was not good enough. – It increases the grief and adds stones to the burden, he told the court. Photo: Julianne Bråten Mossing / news – Victims of system failure Assistance lawyer May Britt Løvik then read out letters that the rest of the siblings had written to the court. In the description from her daughter Helene, it emerged that she was at work offshore when the murder occurred. She therefore had to be picked up by helicopter and returned home over a day later. – The days and weeks afterwards were indescribable. A living nightmare, with guilt, grief and loss, Løvik read from the letter to his daughter. She has taken an education in safety and preparedness. To the court, the daughter repeated what the family had previously said about the safety of the mother’s workplace. – Mum is the victim of a major system failure. It was the man with the knife who killed her, but it was a lack of barriers that made it possible, writes Helene in her letter to the court. Nav has previously responded several times to the family’s debts: Response from Tommy Johansen, municipal director in Bergen We are deeply saddened by the loss of Marianne Amundsen. What happened at NAV Årstad on 20 September last year will be with us forever. Managers, security representatives and shop stewards at NAV Årstad assessed security as good enough before this happened. The risk assessments were based on thorough surveys, experiences and imagined scenarios. In the aftermath of such a tragic event, we must look back at what could have been done differently. We do not recognize claims that NAV has covered up what has happened. From the outset, we have been keen to get all the facts on the table. Bergen municipality and NAV have cooperated well with the police and arranged for all information to come out. The ongoing court case will hopefully provide both us and the next of kin with answers. We have also worked well with the Norwegian Labor Inspection Authority, which carried out inspections after the incident. We obviously want our employees to work under safe conditions, and have no motive to keep anything hidden. As far as the furnishings are concerned, we can do nothing but refer to Hilde Larsen’s testimony. There it emerged that what is practice is that the person who is going to use the room prepares it before taking someone in for a conversation. It also emerged that the management team has carried out risk assessments of the room. The minimum standard does not say anything about how a meeting room should be furnished. “It’s always your voice that I hear” The witness accounts of the bereaved were concluded with assistance lawyer Løvik reading a poem by Trygve Skaug, at the request of his daughter: Siste dag på måndag The accused man admits to being behind the actions, but thinks he was psychotic. Both the prosecution and the forensic psychiatrists are in disagreement. It is nevertheless the main question that the court must decide; whether the man can be sentenced to prison or must be transferred to compulsory mental health care. State attorney May-Britt Erstad has announced that a request for a custodial sentence may be made for the accused 40-year-old. She will hold her closing proceedings on Monday, which will also be the court’s last day. Read all about the trial after the Nav murder:
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– Mum was taken from us without warning – news Vestland
