Until 10 January this year, the 24-year-old was charged with complicity in murder.
On Thursday, he is sitting as a witness in the same murder case, where a British 21-year-old is sitting on the dock.
For the 24-year-old, who is Norwegian, the case was dismissed on the basis of the evidence. He says that he has known the British accused of murder for many years because they played computer games together at a professional level.
Wanted to stop fireworks
On New Year’s Eve 2021, the Briton was to come to Haugesund to celebrate the New Year.
– I picked him up in Bergen. We were going to have a good time and had no negative intentions. There was nothing to indicate that this tragedy would happen, says the 24-year-old in court.
The problems started when the New Year’s rockets started going off. As the 24-year-old remembers it, the Brit reacted strongly to the blows. The Brit has also explained this to the police.
MANY TRACES: The police have found a number of biological traces at the crime scene. Photo: Jan Kåre Ness / NTB
The reason is that, according to his own explanation, the Briton grew up in a violent home and has developed severe PTSD, which makes him react to loud voices and loud bangs.
– He wanted those who launched rockets outside the block of flats to stop, so he went out for a walk. I assumed he was going to talk to someone, he says.
Was going to meet a woman
While the Briton was outside, the 24-year-old became preoccupied with a woman with whom he had contact on the phone. On the same day, he had agreed that she should come to him and join the New Year’s celebration.
Sometime closer to 01.30, they went out to the car park, according to the 24-year-old, to welcome the woman who was to arrive in a taxi.
At the same time, Kjetil André Østhus and his mates went out of the neighboring block and down into the car park to set off the rest of their fireworks.
PROSECUTOR: Public prosecutor Birgitte Budal Løvlund has a number of questions for the 24-year-old. Photo: Simen Askjer / TV 2
The 24-year-old man says that his friend said “there they are” and went in the direction of Østhus and his friends.
– I thought “ah, is he going to argue with them about fireworks now?” says the 24-year-old.
“Shit, what’s going on now?”
The situation escalated when the Brit pulled out a knife, he says.
Østhus’ friends, who have explained themselves earlier in the trial, believe that the Briton held a knife in each hand.
– “Shit! What happens now? What will he do now?’, I thought. I yelled, “What are you doing?! Returned!” says the 24-year-old.
Several of Østhus’s friends have explained in court that they saw the perpetrator run all the way to Østhus.
As they remember it, the perpetrator had knocked a battery of fireworks out of the hands of one of Østhus’s comrades. Østhus had then picked up the fireworks and started walking towards the square where they had set off fireworks earlier in the evening.
OVERVIEW: The first arrow shows where the defendant and his friend celebrated the New Year. The second arrow shows where Østhus and his friends set off fireworks earlier in the evening. The third arrow shows where Østhus was stabbed. The fourth arrow shows where Østhus and his friends celebrated the New Year. Photo: The police
The comrades have slightly different memories of whether it was one or two men who ran away to Østhus.
As the 24-year-old remembers it, he was still standing at a distance and saw nothing when the stabbing happened.
“I just did it”
Not even when he walked over to the lawn where Østhus was killed did he realize what had happened.
– I went away and said “let’s leave, come on, what are you doing?”. He said everything was chill and started walking back to the apartment. He walked fast.
Back in the apartment, the 24-year-old believes that the Brit told him what he had done.
– Suddenly he said “I stabbed him, I stabbed him with the knife”. I asked why, and he just replied, “I just did it,” he says.
PHOTOGRAPHER: Police crime technicians spent a lot of time at the crime scene on 1 January 2022. Photo: Jan Kåre Ness / NTB
At first, the 24-year-old didn’t believe his mate.
– I didn’t see any blood on the knife, and it’s hard to believe something like that at all. I have never met anyone who has even stabbed someone, he says.
He nevertheless explained that if he had threatened or stabbed someone with a knife, they had to go out and report to the police.
At the same time, he took out a notepad and wrote the name of a local defense attorney on a note for his mate. He thought they had to get out and get an ambulance.
– Then we went out and were met by armed police and arrested, he says.
– Much has been displaced
The 24-year-old man was detained for several weeks before being released. Since then, the police maintained the murder charge, while he himself no longer wanted to be questioned.
Among other things, the police have found a small amount of blood from Østhus on his jacket. He has no explanation for this.
DEFENDER: Lawyer Ole Magnus Strømmen has announced that the Briton’s mental health will be central to the court. Photo: Simen Askjer / TV 2
The lawyer for the 24-year-old has announced that he will demand compensation for the time he spent in custody and for the burden it has been to be charged in the case.
– I was in prison for a murder I did not commit. It is indescribable, he says.
In court, he is confronted with several things from his own explanation. He is clear that he finds it difficult to talk about the matter.
– Much has been displaced. I don’t really want to remember any of this, he says.
The accused Briton has always denied criminal guilt in the case. He has not wanted to explain himself to the court, which has therefore had to see and hear the explanations he has previously given to the police.
In these explanations, he is in no way connected to the murder.
DEEPLY MISSED: In the days after the murder, flowers and candles were laid for Kjetil André Østhus (28). Photo: Jan Kåre Ness / NTB
According to the Briton, he and his friend were going out to buy cigarettes when a number of police officers suddenly pointed guns at them.
– I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, he says in one of the interviews, and adds that he has simply had bad luck.
Found DNA
The 24-year-old is clear that he had no idea that his friend had knives with him when they went out into the car park.
The police have made a number of DNA findings linking the defendant to the murder. Among other things, kitchen knives have been found which appear to have been washed, but which tested positive for blood.
DNA from Østhus, the defendant and his companion was found on the knives, which correspond well with the witnesses’ descriptions.
TO BE DECIDED HERE: Haugaland and Sunnhordaland District Court has set aside seven days for the trial. Photo: Frode Sunde / TV 2
None of Østhus’s comrades have been able to give a clear description of who they believe stabbed the 28-year-old. However, several of them have believed that it was “he who was masked”.
In the apartment where the defendant and his friend celebrated New Year’s Eve, which is also close to the car park, the police have found a neck with a death’s head on it, which has the defendant’s DNA all over it.
Multiple diagnoses
The prosecution has not been able to confront the Briton with these findings, because at one point he stopped being questioned, which he is entitled to as a defendant in a criminal case.
If the court should find it proven that it was the Briton who committed the murder, it will be a question of whether he was criminally sane during the incident.
He has a number of diagnoses, including paranoid psychosis and various behavioral disorders, according to the experts who have observed him.
State Attorney Løvlund has announced that she may request a transfer to compulsory mental health care in the case, but she may also request a custodial sentence – depending on what emerges during the trial.
