The mother in the emergency home is full of praise for the boy who was abused by his father when he was 7 years old. In the summer of 2022, the boy was found tied up and with extensive injuries in an apartment in Bergen. The boy had come to his father in Norway that same year through family reunification. Now the man in his 30s is on trial in Hordaland District Court for serious abuse. Children’s welfare people have testified today. – We met a boy who was gray in the face and had obvious pain in his back. Pieces of metal came out of his body which I picked away with tweezers, the mother told the emergency home when she testified in court today. She says that pimple-like sores appeared on the child’s skin. Looking at them more closely, she could pick out small, coppery strands with tweezers. – A safer boy The boy has explained that his father beat him all over his body – with a belt and with a cable. Bits of the metal can come from this wire. A policewoman had to cut the boy free from the bed. The sheet was stuck to the boy’s back. The emergency home came into play the first night the boy was in hospital. During the year he lived with this family, he has developed into a more secure boy. – In the beginning, he had no words for his feelings. Expressing being scared, sad or seeking comfort took a long time, she says. In February of the year after he ended up in emergency care, things began to calm down. – He was also afraid of seeing cold water, but the following summer he played in the water dispenser and had fun with other children. – It was incredibly powerful to see that he sought out situations that he had previously been afraid of – such as going to the bathroom and locking himself in alone – and to see that he no longer had a fear of cold water. The emergency mother says the boy showed a strong grief reaction when he had to move on. – He went from being someone who didn’t talk about feelings to being a boy who cried and accepted comfort. It was a development we had not thought would happen so quickly. Assistance lawyer May Britt Løvik and prosecutor Asbjørn Onarheim. Photo: Silje Rognsvåg – He was scared, no matter what we did. When he arrived at the emergency shelter, he had major psychological reactions. There were many triggers when he was going to bed. – The safest place – in bed – was the most unsafe place for him. It became difficult. Keeping him around was a trigger. The fact that we left the room made him afraid and restless. When we turned off the light, he got scared. – It was almost like no matter what we did, he got scared. There has been a lot of talk about the responsibility child protection has had for follow-up, but the emergency mother believes that other agencies should also take responsibility: – The Directorate of Immigration should also change its routines, such as checking that reunified families speak the same language and that they have a financial which makes it possible to survive, she said in court. “Want to forget his early life” The child welfare service offered that they could collect the life history of the offended boy, so that he has an overview of his own life. He then had one clear demand: – I only want to include the story from the day I moved into the emergency home, nothing before that, the boy told the child protection agency. – The boy just wants to be Norwegian. He wants to change his name and stop speaking the languages he has spoken before, the children’s welfare contact person told the court today. The accused was removed from the court Just two minutes after the trial against the man in his 30s started today, he had to be taken under control by two policemen. They handcuffed him after he apparently tried to harm himself. The defendant’s cries were heard between the press room and the external room where the defendant follows the case. Expert Andreas Kjerstad says that the attacks appear to have been staged, and that the important thing for the experts is to establish what condition the defendant had at the time of the crime. They believe that they already have grounds for this. Police officers accompany the defendant from prison to the court in Valkendorfs gate. Photo: John Inge Johansen / news – We see a man who obviously has no desire to be present, and for our part we no longer have any objections to that, said the other expert, Ida Stafsnes. Thus, the defendant was dismissed from the court. Plays? Throughout the trial, the accused man has been sitting with a scarf around his eyes and earplugs to limit the impact of light and sound. Yesterday he had two seizures during the playback of the arranged interrogations with the offended seven-year-old. Today the man tried to harm himself. The experts believe that his appearance may be an act.
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The father severely mistreated a 7-year-old in Bergen – now a loving emergency shelter has made the boy playful and safe – news Vestland
