Interrogations-and-Confessions-Handbook

Murder in Norway 591
centre and the crime scene was about 4000 metres (2.5 miles) depending on the
route taken.
The local police were provided with assistance from Kripos, the Norwegian
National Bureau of Crime Investigation, which is based in Oslo. Crime scene
analysts from Kripos arrived and conducted their investigations. The investigation
focused on two avenues of evidence, a ‘car avenue’ and a ‘hair avenue’.
The car avenue aspect of the investigation was based on the theory that the
victim could have left Kopervik centre by car and probably in the company of
the perpetrator. There were a number of sightings of identified cars on the night
of the murder. One of the cars was reported as racing in the direction of the
murder scene at about 0030 hours on the night of the murder. Neither the car
nor the driver were identified by the police.
The hair avenue focused on a number of hairs found at the crime scene, including
two identical hairs, one found in the victim’s clenched fist, and the other
on her underwear. These hairs did not establish the identity of the murderer
and were discarded by the police and prosecution.
As far as the car and hair avenues were concerned they did not assist the
police with solving the case. As a result, the police were considering closing the
investigation. However, in January 1997 a decision was made to review once
again all the material in the case. Detectives working on the case were convinced
that the perpetrator was already somewhere in the case pile and there were
several suspects who had not been satisfactorily ‘checked out’; among them was
Mr A, the victim’s 17-year-old cousin. He was to be re-interviewed, arrested,
subjected to custodial confinement and interrogation, and ultimately convicted
of the murder.
The Interviews of Mr A as a Witness
The police interviewed Mr A, originally as a witness on 10 and 11 May 1995. It
appears that at the time he had became a suspect after a previous headmaster
had notified the police, shortly after the offence, that Mr A had a history of
sexually inappropriate behaviour with girls.
Mr A lived close to the victim’s home. It appears that at the time he had been
a prime suspect, but he strenuously denied any involvement in the murder.
He claimed that on the night of the murder he had gone to the cinema with
some friends in a nearby town, Kopervik. The film ended at approximately
2230 hours. He then visited a discotheque and spent some time in Kopervik’s
pedestrian street before returning home on his bicycle shortly after midnight.
His parents confirmed to the police his arrival home about midnight.
Prior to Mr A being re-interviewed in January 1997, it was clear that he was
a prime suspect. A careful and detailed preparation took place prior to Mr A
being re-interviewed to plan how to break down his resistance and elicit a confession.
The police officers in the case seemed sure of his guilt and focused all
their efforts on proving his involvement in the murder. Two police officers from
Kripos were to play a central role in the investigation: officer E, who became
the principal interrogator, and officer F, who was in overall charge of the investigation
(i.e. the ‘team leader’). They were assisted by a local police officer,