A 32-year-old man from Sri Lanka is in custody after being charged with attempting to rape a woman in her 50s who was jogging in Lillestrøm, a commuter town near Oslo.
In the early hours of the morning on 9 April, a woman in her 50s who was out jogging was subjected to an attempted rape by a man in his 30s at Nebbursvollen. The man was detected by a police helicopter, which searched the area shortly after the woman contacted the police. He attempted to hide among some trees.
After a short time, he was apprehended by local police.
The police have charged the man with attempted rape and with violence against his cohabiting partner. Two days after the attempted rape, he was remanded in custody by Romerike and Glåmdal District Court (Romerike og Glåmdal tingrett).
– The ruling was appealed on the spot and will be heard by the Court of Appeal (lagmannsretten) at some point next week, says defence counsel, trainee lawyer (advokatfullmektig) Ingeborg Narud, to Romerikes Blad.
The police state that they “require some time to clarify the circumstances and extent of the violence, including whether this is an isolated incident” in relation to the accused’s violence against his cohabiting partner.
It was on this footpath that the woman was jogging when she was subjected to an attempted rape. In the background, one can see the built-up area of Lillestrøm. Photo: Private
According to the man from Sri Lanka, he had no intention of raping the woman. Instead, it was that he wished to ask her for money. In police questioning, he has explained:
… that “he only took hold of the complainant (fornærmede) by the shoulders with the intention of asking her for money and to make her stop screaming”.
Deputy judge Marte Bjørneng remarks that this “stands in stark contrast to the information that emerges from the other evidence”.
The court assesses that it is probable that the man has committed both violence at home and against a random person he encountered that morning. He is therefore remanded in custody on grounds of both risk of evidence tampering and risk of reoffending.
The court concludes that “the overall evidential picture forms a basis for a strong preponderance of probability of repeated violent offences, should he be released”.
The 32-year-old man had previously been part of an integration programme in a municipality in Northern Norway when he was around 17 years old, in 2010. At that time, he was highlighted in the local press as one of the newly arrived who had integrated well.