The Arab man (38) found a heavily intoxicated woman on a bench in Larvik town centre and carried her into his car. When she managed to escape, he drove after her and forced her into the car. He has now been sentenced to three years and eight months’ imprisonment for rape.
Vestfold District Court handed down the verdict on 14 October. The verdict was unanimous, and the court fully upheld Public Prosecutor Mari Gjersøe’s sentencing recommendation. The man, in his late 30s, must also pay the woman, in her 20s, just over 1.6 million kroner in compensation.
On the night of Saturday 14 June 2025, the woman was out at the Hansemann nightclub in Larvik. She felt unwell, went to Lilletorget and lay down on a bench. The man found her there just before 01.30. The woman recognised him from before. He has denied knowing who she was.
Document is unable to name the perpetrator due to court restrictions.
She was lying with her eyes closed. She was unable to stand and did not respond to questions. The man lifted her up and carried her into the car. He placed her in a reclined seat and fastened the seatbelt over her arms so that she could not move.
Shortly after he drove out of the town centre, he touched her thigh and slipped his hand inside her knickers. According to the court, he masturbated her and inserted one or more fingers into her vagina. He also took photographs. One of them shows his hand inside her knickers. He took another one with a flash. The woman did not react.
He stopped and parked at the Rema 1000 in Skreppestad. There, he leaned over her and tried to kiss her. With one hand, he held her thighs apart; with the other, he again inserted his fingers into her. The woman has stated that the pain increased.
They got out of the car. CCTV footage from the scene shows the man lifting her up, with her hanging over his arms. Shortly afterwards, she broke free and ran.
The man followed her on foot. He then got into the car and drove after her. He caught up with her again, carried her into the car and drove on towards her parents-in-law, whilst she pointed out the way. On the way, he pinched her nipples and once again inserted his fingers into her vagina, the court found.
When they reached the house, she was unable to get in through the front door. The man followed her round the house. At 02.32, her phone rang. The man answered and spoke for about eleven minutes with her partner. He did not hand the phone to her. He then drove away. The woman made her way home on her own.
Her partner and his brother contacted the police, who interviewed her that same night.
In court, the man claimed that he merely wanted to help the woman home. The court does not believe this.
“If the defendant’s intention was to help the victim, it seems rather unnatural to take her with him in his car, out of Larvik town centre,” the court writes.
There were still people outside the nightclub. The man never attempted to contact anyone she had been out with, either directly or via her mobile phone. Nor did the two share a common language, and he is a foreign national.
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He explained that he had stopped at Skreppestad because he wanted to avoid the traffic and find out where she lived. The court points out that there was little traffic after half past one in the morning, and that he could have stopped at several bus stops along the way. When she ran away from him, he had no reason to go and fetch her back.
“At this point, the defendant had no reasonable grounds to continue helping the victim,” the court states.
His account has changed over the course of the proceedings. In his first interview, he denied any sexual contact. When confronted with the woman’s account, he said that he might have touched her over her clothes whilst carrying her. In a second interview, he could not recall whether his hand was inside or outside her clothes. In court, he was absolutely certain: a clenched fist, inside her knickers, above her genitals. That is precisely what the photograph shows.
He admitted guilt for a sexual act without consent, but denied the charge of rape. Defence lawyer Jon Gunnar Christensen requested an acquittal.
In court, he described the photograph as ‘a moment of stupidity’. During police questioning, he had explained that he was “very tempted” by what he saw, and that it looked “very sexy”.
The court based its decision on the woman’s testimony. It is detailed and has remained largely consistent from the initial interview through to the courtroom. She described the weight of his body on top of her and his beard against her face. No DNA traces were found on her knickers. According to the court, this does not alter the evidence.
“The court finds no basis for the victim having had a motive to fabricate a story about sexual assault by the defendant,” the judgment states.
Since 1 July 2025, there has been no minimum sentence for rape involving sexual intercourse. The Supreme Court has subsequently held that the sentence for so-called ‘sleep rape’ cases should normally be set lower than before.
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The District Court considers that this case does not belong there. It was not a brief, impulsive act. The assaults lasted for approximately one hour. The court emphasises that the man took advantage of a particularly vulnerable woman, that he carried her into the car on two occasions, and that the strap across her arms made her more ‘restrained’.
In a judgement handed down this year, the Supreme Court based its decision on a sentence of approximately two years’ imprisonment for a man who once inserted a finger into the rectum of a sleeping woman. The District Court considers the Larvik case to be ‘clearly more serious’, and that the sentence must be significantly higher. The court found no mitigating circumstances.
The woman has been diagnosed with PTSD and has dropped out of the labour market. The court-appointed expert assesses her permanent medical disability at at least 35 per cent. The court assumes that she will remain out of the labour market for at least the next three years.
The man must pay 1,050,000 kroner in compensation for personal injury, 220,000 kroner in compensation for non-pecuniary damage and approximately 356,000 kroner for loss of earnings. The defence counsel argued that the injuries would have occurred in any case. The court rejected this and ruled that the rape was the clearly predominant cause.
In court, the man said that he realised immediately that the image was wrong, and that he therefore deleted it. The metadata tells a different story.
He took the photo at 01.27. He opened it again at 02.45, shortly after the conversation with his partner. It was not until 03.19 that he deleted it.
