– We should all feel safe in our own home. It is our place of safety and where we should feel safe, says the 25-year-old.
He is charged with abduction and grievous bodily harm after the kidnapping drama at Tolga on the night of 2 January last year.
The 25-year-old was the driver and had the 28-year-old co-accused in the passenger seat when they drove from Oslo on New Year’s Day last year.
On the way up Østerdalen, the 28-year-old sat snorting cocaine and drinking light beer. The 25-year-old himself drank protein shakes and ate bananas, he says.
In court, the driver repeats several times that he deeply regrets what he was involved in. On Wednesday, the court finished with the statements of all four defendants.
– I fully understand their psychological problems today, he says, referring to the offended family.
– Difficult to talk about
The co-accused, the 28-year-old, who carried the revolver and was wearing a bulletproof vest, is said to have tried to psyche up the driver by asking him to imagine that they were playing the shooting game Call of Duty.
At approximately 01.50 at night they arrived at the house in Tolga.
Both perpetrators described themselves in court as very desperate and stressed when they entered the home.
BROKEN THE WINDOW: The two perpetrators broke this window with a snow shovel before entering the home. Photo: The police
The offended 21-year-old and his parents have described the armed 28-year-old as the more active and threatening of the two.
Nevertheless, the 25-year-old is honest that he too went way over the line this night.
– I think this is difficult to talk about, he says.
Before they found the 21-year-old, who had hidden under a bed, his two parents were hit, kicked and threatened by the two defendants.
– I think of scenarios where my daughter and I are at home and someone were to come in to me in this way. Then I would have moved afterwards, says the 25-year-old.
– Absolutely tragic. Insane.
The 28-year-old co-accused and his defender have suggested that the offended 21-year-old joined the two perpetrators from the house rather voluntarily.
The 25-year-old partly agrees that he stayed. Nevertheless, he does not think it is so strange that the 21-year-old at some point stopped fighting.
– We have shocked him. We surprised him. We are in a place where he should feel safe. That is, I feel, the biggest damage we have done – that we have caused him that uncertainty.
– How did you perceive him in the car? ppasks the 25-year-old’s defender.
– Calm down. Die quietly.
– Was he afraid?
– I think so.
On their way down the Østerdalen, they drove off the road at a potato stall near Koppang. They stayed there for up to an hour before they were picked up by a taxi which drove them on to Hamar.
OUT IN THE FIELD: This picture was taken on 2 January last year and shows the tracks of the car that ran off the road near Koppang. Photo: Harald Jacobsen / TV 2
The victim was wearing only boxer shorts and a sweater when they left the house in Tolga.
When they waited for the taxi, the 21-year-old sat on his knees on a scarf that had been laid on the snow. On his feet, which he held in the air behind him, he had worn a pair of gloves.
– Absolutely tragic. Insane. That’s my opinion on it, he says and continues:
– I was immediately afraid that he would freeze to death.
During the testimony, it emerged that during the trial the 25-year-old felt a strong need to apologize to the 21-year-old and his parents.
– I couldn’t help it. I didn’t know if it was right, if they wanted it and if I should do it. But here on Wednesday I walked past and they were sitting together alone. There weren’t many people around and they were looking at me, so I stopped and went back, looked them in the eye and apologized for what I had done.
Created FIFA alibi
On their way to Tolga, the perpetrators stopped by Hamar and stopped at the apartment of a former reality contestant, who is also charged in the case.
There, the 25-year-old left his SIM card, so that the police would not be able to trace where he had been afterwards.
He claims that it was the 28-year-old co-accused who asked him to do this. The 28-year-old believes that this was something they agreed on, because they had to create an alibi that they were in Hamar and playing FIFA that evening.
After they had been in Tolga, they returned to the flat in Hamar at around 05:00 in the morning.
DEFENDER: Lawyer Harald Grape defends the 25-year-old driver. Photo: Lars Nyland / TV 2
From there, the 28-year-old and the victim were driven on to Oslo by the former reality participant.
The latter denies criminal guilt in the case and believes he was forced by the other defendants to transport them on.
At the same time, the 25-year-old went back to Koppang to try to start the rental car again. He couldn’t do that.
He therefore started walking to try to find a train home to Oslo. The SIM card was still in the apartment in Hamar.
– It was blue sky, good temperature and I was prepared to go.
Somewhere along the way he got into a conversation with a man who was out driving a snowblower. He gave the man a ride to the nearest train station.
When he finally got on a train, he got online and sent a message to his girlfriend that he was on his way home.
Reported unsolicited
The boyfriend had been told that he was going to play FIFA and drink beer with some friends in Hamar.
When he got off the train at the National Theater on the morning of 2 January, he was met by his girlfriend at the train station.
– She needed half a second to see that I hadn’t played FIFA. I was as pale, he says.
After he had put his cards on the table and told her what he had been involved in, he met the now co-accused, the 24-year-old, who the police believe ordered the abduction.
REPORTED: On 3 January, the 25-year-old reported to the police. Photo: Rune Blekken / TV 2
The two agreed that the driver should report.
– I contact Harald Grape the same day, and say that “I want to meet you tonight, if possible.”
– “Yes”, he said, and I explained to Grape the same thing as I am telling here today.
Lawyer Harald Grape has been the 25-year-old’s defender since he reported himself to the Majorstuen police station on 3 January last year.
