Today the case against Jan Helge Andersen starts – maintains the explanation about the Baneheia murders

Similar to when the Baneheia case was dealt with in the legal system over 20 years ago, Andersen will again explain that he was not alone when the murders were committed on 19 May 2000.

He will say that his comrade Viggo Kristiansen was involved, and that he was involved in the misdeeds, his defenders confirm to Aftenposten.

The new murder charge against Jan Helge Andersen assumes that it was he and he alone who raped and killed both Stine Sofie Sørstrønen (8) and Lena Sløgedal Paulsen (10).

The prosecution’s opinion corresponds to that which Viggo Kristiansen has presented since he was arrested and charged in 2000: He was not in Baneheia when the murders were committed and has nothing to do with the actions.

– Kristiansen is a person who has no other connection to the case than the fact that a former friend of his is being prosecuted for the second of two murders that were committed in Kristiansen’s vicinity, says Brynjar Meling, Viggo Kristiansen’s legal counsel, to NTB.

Andersen in the witness box

The case against Andersen comes up for Sør-Rogaland District Court on Tuesday and will be heard over eight court weeks. According to the plan, Andersen himself will take the witness stand already on the opening day, after the prosecution and the defense have made their opening statements.

Andersen’s defender, lawyer Svein Holden, has not wanted to comment on the case to NTB.

The prosecution believes that “all elements of evidence” are fully “compatible with Kristiansen’s own explanation that he himself should have been at home when the Baneheia crimes were committed”, according to the justification for the request for a new indictment against Andersen.

– As the Attorney General has previously pointed out, Andersen’s explanation is characterized by inaccuracies and a lack of credibility, writes the Oslo State Attorney’s Office in its statement of reasons.

Blamed the mate

The two friends were swimming in the area on 19 May 2000 when they were lured to a more remote and overgrown area. Here they were raped, killed and hidden in the terrain. It was only two days later – after a search operation with broad participation from the local community – that their remains were found badly mutilated.

The murders and the circumstances shook the whole of Norway in the spring and summer of 2000 and received considerable attention in the years that followed.

Two years after the murders took place, the comrades Jan Helge Andersen and Viggo Kristiansen were convicted of raping and killing the girls.

Jan Helge Andersen (43) is now on trial in Sør-Rogaland district court for having also raped and killed Lena Sløgedal Paulsen (10) – more than 20 years after he was acquitted of this relationship in two courts.

He has all the way claimed – and been believed – that it was his comrade at the time, Viggo Kristiansen (44), who was the leader behind the actions and the culprit for Paulsen’s murder.