The DNA trace is by far the most important piece of evidence the prosecution has against the 52-year-old defendant from Karmøy. In a blood stain on Birgitte’s pantyhose, DNA experts from Austria and the Netherlands have found a Y chromosome that they are sure comes from the defendant. – The DNA evidence, i.e. the new findings that were made after the retrial in 2016, is very central, and the indictment is based on this, says the prosecutor, state attorney Thale Thomseth. Public prosecutor Thale Thomseth says the DNA evidence will be very central in the upcoming trial. Photo: Mathias Oppedal / news The Y chromosome is only found in men, and the chromosome found on Birgitte’s tights comes from the defendant’s paternal line. At the same time, a rare mutation has occurred between the defendant and his father. According to the experts, this rules out that the Y chromosome can come from someone other than the defendant. Together with 42 other men, the defendant submitted a DNA sample from the mucous membranes on the inside of the cheek in 2002, but that time the police did not find the 52-year-old. In the last decade, more sensitive technology has made it possible to separate the Y chromosome from mixed traces where there is DNA from both the victim and the perpetrator. That could be one of the explanations for not having found a match on the defendant’s DNA in previous tests. Four days have been set aside in weeks 4 and 5 of the trial for the DNA evidence, and experts from Austria, the Netherlands and England will testify in court. – We believe this is certain evidence, but do not wish to comment further on how we assess the evidence, says Thomseth. – Would this case have come before the court without the DNA evidence? – No. The prosecution believes that a Y chromosome in a blood stain on Birgitte Tengs’ tights links the 52-year-old to the murder. No alibi the night of the murder The defendant, the 52-year-old from Karmøy, has no alibi for the night of the murder. According to his own police statement, he drove around the center of Haugesund, and was either at the cinema or bowling. He estimates that he arrived home at 02.30. He explained this in the first interrogation on Monday 4 December 1995. And has maintained this in all interrogations since then. The prosecutor’s challenge is to link him to the center of Kopervik, where Birgitte Tengs was last seen shortly after midnight on the night of Saturday 6 May. Several witnesses have seen the 17-year-old girl getting into a car. One of the witnesses, a woman who arrived in the center of Kopervik by taxi just after midnight, has explained in a police interview that she saw a girl who looked like Birgitte standing on the pavement in Hovedgata in the center of Kopervik. The light-haired girl was talking to a driver who was sitting in a green car. The car resembled her ex-boyfriend’s car, so she remembered the colour. The ex-boyfriend’s car was a Mazda 929, but there were details about the car she saw that did not match this one. In other words, she was sure of the colour, but not of the car brand. At this time the defendant was driving a green Opel Ascona. And he must have driven past Kopervik that night to get home from Haugesund. The defendant was driving a green Opel Ascona on the night of the murder. Photo: Illustration/Syed Ali Shahbaz Akhtar / news Public prosecutor Thale Thomseth will try to prove that it was the defendant who picked up Birgitte Tengs in Hovedgata on the night of the murder in 1995. This will be the topic towards the end of week 6 in the trial. – Birgitte’s movements and who she has met are important for the timeline, says Thomseth. Designated as a mode candidate In 1996, police secretary Grete Strømme wrote a 22-page report to the investigation management in the Birgitte Tengs case. In the report, she pointed to the defendant as a mode candidate that the investigators should look into more closely. At the same time, three policemen had already pointed to the person in question as a possible mode candidate. In total, the police and the prosecution have received over 20 tips on the accused over the years. As a 15-year-old, the defendant committed his first sexually related assault. A 30-year-old woman was beaten with a bicycle pump. According to the victim, the perpetrator appeared sexually aroused. The man has always denied guilt. He will appear in court on Wednesday and Thursday this week. Photo: Privat In the following years, the defendant committed several burglaries where he stole women’s clothing. In 1990, he was convicted of exposure and lewd behavior after he entered the house of a neighbor girl, exposed himself and masturbated. Later that year, he assaulted his psychologist in her home in Haugesund. Here the procedure was similar, with exposure and masturbation, but he was wearing women’s clothes. In addition, he tried to strangle her with a cord.Four days after the murder of Birgitte Tengs in 1995, the psychologist also tipped off the police about the defendant as a mode candidate. In both 1994, 1995 and 1996, the man was convicted of several cases of extensive telephone harassment. In May 1996, exactly one year after the murder of Birgitte Tengs, he was active with exposure again. This time in Haugesund. The man exposed himself to a woman on Risøy bridge, followed and assaulted her. Later in May, he exposed himself four times in the same evening. That same night, he almost ran over a policeman, and was arrested after a car chase in Haugesund and Karmøy. – His criminal record will be an important topic, says Thomseth. Stian Kristensen is the defender of the accused 52-year-old. Photo: Ole Andreas Bø / news Lie in interrogation? The accused man was first questioned on 4 December 1995, seven months after the murder. There he explains that he is little known in the Sund/Skår area, i.e. where Birgitte Tengs was found murdered. He further explains that he worked in Kvalavåg a few years before the murder, a small village which, as the crow flies, is a few kilometers from the crime scene in Gamle Sundvegen. But he did not drive Sundvegen when he was going to and from work. Instead, he chose a detour that is six kilometers longer. The explanation for this was that he was best known on this road and that it was not so smooth there. The defendant’s driving behavior will be a topic in week 5 of the trial. The 52-year-old has also explained in questioning that he was rarely or never in Kopervik before the summer of 1995. Then he got to know some girls from Åkra who he often drove to Kopervik. The girls, on the other hand, have explained in questioning that the defendant started driving them to Kopervik a year before the murder of Birgitte Tengs, and that he almost acted as a taxi for them. This ended in the spring of 1995. The man has always denied guilt. He will appear in court on Wednesday and Thursday this week. – He is distraught that charges have been brought, and denies having anything to do with the murder of Birgitte Tengs, says the man’s defender, lawyer Stian Kristensen.
ttn-69
The DNA evidence will be decisive in the Tengs case – news Rogaland – Local news, TV and radio
