A father in his 30s is charged with gross, torture-like abuse of his son when he was seven years old. It happened over several weeks, in an apartment in Bergen in the summer of 2022. Some photos are clearly left from the trial in Hordaland district court this week. The shocking pictures that the father himself – and then the police – took of the abused boy tied to the bed. The video interview in which the boy, despite the traumatic experiences, appeared to be safe and resourceful. And the appearance of the defendant in the courtroom: dressed all in red in a wheelchair, with a white scarf covering his face, and the body movements and sounds he makes. – Could be acting. During the trial, he also wore earplugs and closed off all visual and auditory impressions. On Wednesday and Thursday, he had several seizures in court. That led to him being taken back to prison, so that the court was not disturbed by him. The two experts who will assess the man’s state of mental health have stated several times that they believe his behavior in the courtroom may be acting. The defendant has refused to answer the question of guilt, but his defender, Ahmad Taha, has said he “perceives that the man does not plead guilty” and that the defendant believes he was insane. The court premises have been subject to very strict restrictions during the trial. The media had to follow from a separate room, and no outsiders were allowed to be present in the hall while the defendant arrived. Photo: John Inge Johansen / news – Not linked to illness On Friday it was the experts’ turn to explain in detail their assessments of the man’s state of health while the abuse was ongoing. – Both for us in court, and for those who have followed the media coverage and probably discussed the case, I wonder how this can be done without it causing a stir somewhere, asked Judge Johan Eggen. – We do not think this is disease-related. We have no basis to say that he had a diagnosis at the time when the violence and mistreatment allegedly occurred, answered expert Andreas Kjerstad. Diagnosis? Sane? Eligible for parole? Part of what makes this difficult to assess is that after December 2022, the defendant did not want to communicate with any of those who were to observe him. The role of the experts is to assess any diagnosis at the time of the crime, and whether the defendant is fit to serve a sentence now. But it is not for them to assess whether the man is criminally sane, i.e. whether he can be sentenced to punishment. – I see that they have made a diagnosis during the observation period that does not imply any form of insanity, says state attorney Asbjørn Onarheim. He adds that it is the court that decides the question of insanity, based on the descriptions given by the experts. – As a lawyer, I believe there is no evidence here to claim that he is insane, says Onarheim. – It is the court that makes the final decisions and overall assessments. We will get back to it in the procedures on Tuesday, says defender Ahmad Taha. The case in summary: The trial against a man accused of abusing and tying up his 7-year-old son starts on Monday 12 February. The man risks up to 15 years in prison and a ban on contacting the boy. The case led to both the city council and the child welfare director in Bergen resigning in 2022 due to serious shortcomings in the follow-up from child welfare. The boy came to Norway via family reunification with his father in June 2022, and was found injured and tied to a bed in August of the same year. Over 30 people will testify in the trial, which will last six days. The accused man has previously pleaded not guilty. The summary is made by an AI service from OpenAi. The content is quality assured by news’s journalists before publication. – No psychotic signs After the 32-year-old father was arrested, he met psychiatrist Kjerstad, who carried out an initial observation. The conclusion after this meeting was to recommend that two experts should make a full legal observation of the man. Just a few days before, the police had entered the apartment where his then seven-year-old son was tied to the bed and severely affected by repeated abuse. “Torture-like injuries” were described as such by medics. In the first protocol, it is stated that the father “appears generally clear and oriented, good eye contact, answers questions willingly, no clear signs of psychotic functioning such as paranoia, hallucinations, clear delusions or signs of thought disorders, but difficult to evaluate in a short conversation .” Communicated only with notes The experts’ final conclusion has a direct impact on how the defendant can be convicted. After he was admitted to the regional security department for judicial observation, he stopped talking to the experts. He began to communicate with notes in Arabic or Norwegian. The experts further conclude that the absence of communication – both verbal and written – is willful. He has had communication with health personnel who have not been part of the observation team. According to the experts, it is altogether difficult to conclude with any diagnoses. Has the defense said anything about whether they think the father has/had a diagnosis? The trial ends with proceedings on Tuesday.
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Experts believe the father was not ill when he mistreated his son in Bergen – news Vestland
