Police fined for sexual harassment – Court acquits – VG

During a clean-up exercise at the police academy, a police officer reportedly told a female student after a physical examination, “Do you feel raped now?” Associate judges in Westfold District Court have now acquitted the man.

On the day of February 2020, there was a lesson on hygiene in a class at the Stowern Police Academy.

The instructor, a police officer in his 30s, guided the students during the patient examination and explained how to look for bleeding.

The instructor ran his hand up and down the thighs of a female student.

Before the course, the students spent the day in warm clothes.

During the demonstration in the classroom, the instructor should have first said “it was wet here”. When the student finishes the exam, “Do you feel raped now?” Is said to have said.

When the woman answered no, the police officer must have followed: “Then I did not do my job properly.”

– Dark humor

Westfold District Court ruling states that after the incident, the female student was contacted by a course leader at the Police Academy, who said the student wanted to prosecute the case.

But the police academy reported the instructor, who was later fined NOK 12,000 by the Bureau of Investigation.

The man did not decide this, and thus the case ended in court.

There he was charged with sexual abuse or other obscene behavior.

In court, the policeman did not remember saying the questionable statements, but explained that it could not be dismissed.

He explained that these were phrases used in self-defense. He thought he could be soft-spoken and very strict, and that he had a dark sense of humor.

Rash of rough phrases

In a verdict against the man who came this week, he was acquitted by a decisive minority of two co-judges.

However, the entire court agrees that the trial itself is not sexual abuse, but that person’s statements are subject to controversy in court.

The co-judges believed that the defendant’s conduct was “the result of gross statements and the defendant’s utterance of dark things.”

– The majority considers the conduct and statements of the defendant to be reprehensible and inappropriate, but finds that his actions and statements are within the room for careless and abusive behavior and the judgment states that it should be accepted.

They believed that “the notion of awkwardness should be seen as a sign that the victim is sweating.” The victims came directly from the field training and were warmed up after this training.

The professional judge, on the other hand, believed the man guilty because the reports considered in connection with the trial were sexually explicit or contained sexual allegations.

– In the opinion of the minority, this matter is outside the current norm which can be accepted by statements of behavior and sexuality in a normal teaching situation.

– What is sexual abuse?

Carl Henning Leknesund, the person’s bodyguard, says the case was very difficult and stressful for his client.

– It’s a dark comedy, a tough coach, an event that has badly shaped itself, nothing sexual. The clumsy statements may have provoked a reaction, the guard says, but he is adamant that the case is not a criminal case.

Defendant says he felt the co-judges of the case were excited and that they were being closely followed.

– This sentence is optional, and it is based on a legal standard: What is sexual abuse? This may and may not change over time. I respect the fact that professional judges see it differently, but he says I’m glad the concluding judges came to their decision.

The Norwegian Police University College, headed by Communications Manager Sandra Bernil Magnussen, states:

– After learning about the incident, we decided to send the case to the Bureau. The person in question did not work as an instructor at the police academy after the incident. We have no opinion on the case or the verdict.

The woman’s assistant attorney, Annigen Astroup, did not want to comment on the case. The Special Cell has not yet had an opportunity to comment on the case.