A 41-year old man has been found guilty of an unprecedented number of criminal threats. The 19 pages long indictment lists a total of 125 threats, and only one of them has been discharged.
Victims received text messages containing threats against them and their families. Most of the victims were previously involved in cases against the offender, either by testifying in trials, working as judges, or covering the cases’ progress in media.
One of the messages read as follows: “We will terrorize you and your family. We will hit you hard, set fire to your house or destroy your car and in the end kill you.”
Norwegian media report that the man has been charged with threatening behavior and intimidation before. In 2003, while the offender was employed as a teacher, he asked a young boy for an overnight stay, but was refused by the boy’s parents. This triggered him to threaten the parents, which led to him being prosecuted. During the trial the offender tried to convince the court that he was a victim of a conspiracy designed to soil his reputation, but failed and was sentenced to four years in prison. He was also penalized with a fine of $8300 for destroying his prison cells in Oslo and Ullersmo.
The district court of Fredriksstad, where his sentence was passed, announced that this case has no similar examples in the Norwegian legal history.
