The DNA found on the tights of Birgitte Tengs is the crown evidence in the trial against Johny Vassbakk. This evidence meant that he was sentenced to 17 years in prison in Haugaland and Sunnhordland District Court in February. But could the DNA have gotten there either before or after the murder? There is great excitement about whether there will be new DNA findings from the tights of Birgitte Tengs. Photo: The police When the appeal case against Vassbakk starts in the Gulating Court of Appeal on Tuesday 5 September, Vassbakk’s defenders will spend a lot of time explaining how DNA can be transferred from one person to another. – It is a reality that DNA is contagious, and it is a reality that it happens in real life. We humans lose up to 300,000 skin cells per minute, and these skin cells can have DNA profiles on them today. I think it is important that the judges understand that this is not just theory, but that it also happens in practice, says lawyer Stian Kristensen. He is one of Vassbakk’s defenders. New DNA expert In order to shed further light on the DNA problem, the defenders have received NOK 50,000 from the court to engage the Dutch professor Ate Kloosterman. The defenders are this week in the Netherlands for four days to go through the DNA evidence with Kloosterman. The defenders of Johny Vassbakk have engaged the DNA expert Ate Kloosterman from the University of Amsterdam. Photo: Jan Willem Steenmeijer / University of Amsterdam – He will explain the issues raised by the case related to how DNA can be transported and how this happens in practice. He will also point to concrete cases where this has happened, says Kristensen. Kristensen believes the district court did not take this seriously enough in its conviction against Vassbakk. – The only evidence the prosecution has is a bad finding of a sex chromosome. After the district court’s verdict, we see that it is absolutely necessary for the court to obtain this knowledge, says Kristensen. New DNA analyzes This spring it became clear that more than 60 new samples from Birgitte Teng’s pantyhose were to be sent to the Forensic Medicine Institute in the Netherlands, NFI. The samples were taken from what are probably the perpetrator’s handprints, but the analysis is not clear. The answers could potentially mean a lot. – It depends on what comes out of this, says Kristensen. Lawyer Stian Kristensen is one of Johny Vassbakk’s defenders. Photo: Marthe Synnøve Johannessen / news He does not want to speculate on what answers the analyzes will give. But if the new analysis comes back with more DNA matches at Vassbakk, the theory of contagion will be weakened. If you meet another unknown person, it will turn out the other way. Then the DNA match at Vassbakk will have a greatly reduced value, as the prosecution will be left with two potential perpetrators. Johny Vassbakk explained in the district court about several possible points of contact with Birgitte Tengs prior to the murder, but was not believed by the district court. Photo: Hege Vatnaland According to Stavanger Aftenblad, the parties have now received a preliminary report from NFI. – The investigations are still ongoing, but we will get the final result in good time before the DNA experts have to testify in the Court of Appeal in the fourth week, says state attorney Thale Thomseth to Aftenbladet. In the district court, the defenders launched several theories that Vassbakk and Tengs may have met in the weeks before the murder, and that Vassbakk’s DNA may have been transferred then. Kristensen says that they cannot present evidence in the Court of Appeal either that the two actually met each other before the murder. – It is a big problem for the prosecution, but it is just as big a problem for our client. He cannot prove where he was at any time in the spring of 1995. No one can. Then we are left with potential points of contact that the court cannot ignore, says Kristensen. The murder of Birgitte Tengs Birgitte Tengs (17) was found murdered near her home in Karmøy on 6 May 1995. Two years later, Tengs’ then 19-year-old cousin was convicted of the murder of his cousin. The cousin appealed and was acquitted the following year in the Court of Appeal, but he was also sentenced to pay compensation to Tengs’ parents in a civil case, where other evidentiary requirements apply. The Agder Court of Appeal overturned the verdict in November 2022. The murder is still unsolved. In 2003, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg sentenced the Norwegian state to pay compensation to the cousin because the compensation judgment went too far in assuming that the cousin was guilty. In 2015, new interest was created in the case both through a book publication and through VG’s podcast “Unsolved”. In January 2016, the Birgitte Tengs case became the first case taken up by the new cold case unit in Kripos. On Wednesday 1 September 2021, the police arrested a man in his 50s from Karmøy who was charged with the murder. In February 2023, Johny Vassbakk (52) was sentenced to 17 years in prison for the murder.
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New DNA expert in the Tengs case – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
