– From our side, we read the new results to mean that Y chromosomes have been found on Birgitte’s pantyhose from more than one male person, i.e. findings where the defendant can be excluded as a contributor, said lawyer Stian Bråstein, one of the two defenders of Johny Vassbakk, when he started his introductory speech in the Gulating Court of Appeal on Wednesday morning. On Tuesday, however, the prosecution took the new analyzes as income for its case. Disagreement about the interpretation According to state prosecutor Nina Grande, 11 DNA markers from Vassbakk have been found in a new test near a bloody handprint left on Birgitte Tengs. Grande also said that one to three DNA markers have been found that do not match the accused. In these samples, the public prosecutor believes that there is not enough material to point to any other people. “A fight for life”. This is how Johny Vassbakk describes the appeal case in the Gulating Court of Appeal, according to the defenders. Photo: Hege Vatnaland – It is dangerous if the court is already left with the impression that the preliminary results from NFI strengthen the prosecution’s case. These are extremely small amounts of biological material. The analyzes are very sensitive, and the quality assurance of the analyzes that is currently underway may produce different results, says Stian Bråstein. Final results of the new analyzes are only expected in a couple of weeks, and the conclusion here could be central to the outcome of the trial. – A fight for life Stian Bråstein said in the opening lecture that the case has been an enormous burden for Jonny Vassbakk in the past two years. – He describes it himself as a fight for life. According to Bråstein, the core of the dispute is which leads can be drawn from the tiny DNA findings on Birgitte’s pantyhose. Then he does not talk about the new findings, but what was properly dealt with during the district court case. Johny Vassbakk is fighting to have the district court sentence of 17 years in prison overturned. Photo: Private – Can one conclude from this finding that Vassbakk is the perpetrator? We believe there is no basis for such a conclusion, and we shall come back to that a lot later in the trial, says Bråstein. – Character assassination He believes the prosecution is building the whole case along two axes: the Y chromosome from Vassbakk, combined with what he describes as a character assassination by his client. – You try to build up the story of a person with deviant features who sounds like he could be the right one. But already now I want to emphasize that this is a case that is characterized by everything we do not know. Everything that was not investigated and clarified in 1995 and in the time afterwards, claims Bråstein. Bråstein’s colleague, Stian Kristensen, then went into all the possibilities for cross-contamination of trace material, i.e. the danger that Vassbakk’s DNA may have ended up on Birgitte Tengs as a result of poor seizure security by the police, or that Vassbakk and Birgitte may have the same objects. Much of the defense in the case will be built around such considerations. Shock after shock Before the defenders began their submissions, assistant lawyer Erik Lea told what enormous burdens the case had been for Birgitte’s parents, Karen and Torger Tengs, for 28 years. Assistance lawyer Erik Lea, on the left, greets Stian Kristensen, one of the defenders. Photo: Gunnar Morsund / news – There is hardly anything worse that one can experience in this life than losing a child. If you have several children, you can cling to the responsibility of taking care of the remaining children. But for Torger and Karen, Birgitte was the only one, Lea said. He told of the series of shocks for Birgitte’s parents after their daughter was found murdered. It was a shock when their own nephew was arrested, it was a shock when he confessed, it was a shock when he withdrew his confession, and it was a shock when he was finally acquitted, Lea said. After the district court case, it emerged that Torger Tengs is in a process where he has begun to believe that it is now the right perpetrator who stands trial for the murder, while Karen is still determined that her own nephew killed her daughter. Torger Tengs will take the witness stand on Wednesday afternoon, or most likely Thursday morning, to give his version of how he has experienced the case. According to Erik Lea, it is not certain that Karen Tengs will be able to come to Stavanger to follow the trial this time.
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Defender believes new analyzes can rule out Johny Vassbakk – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
