Journalist mother Ellen Kongsnes insists that her son, who has been convicted of conspiracy to murder, could never have harmed anyone. On social media, however, she has faced fierce criticism.
The 18-year-old Johannes Natland from Stavanger was recently convicted of conspiracy to murder in Huddersfield, England. In a lengthy interview that has prompted strong reactions, his journalist mother, Ellen Kongsnes, maintains in Stavanger Aftenblad that he is innocent.
According to her, Natland waved goodbye to his mother at the family’s spacious home in Stavanger on 17 March last year. He said he was going to play football and would be home that evening.
At six o’clock the following morning, Ellen Kongsnes received a text message:
“Gone for a few days. With a friend. Love you.”
Then there was silence. His mother telephoned, sent messages and tried to tempt him home with dinner. The family reported him missing.
Four days later, three police officers arrived at the front door. Their son had been arrested in a hotel room in Huddersfield, northern England, with two firearms, twelve live rounds of ammunition and £2,000 in cash.
He had just turned 18 and had never travelled abroad alone before.
“I just kept repeating to them: ‘In Britain? Are you sure?’” Ellen Kongsnes recalls in an interview in which she appears under her full name and with her photograph in the Daily Mail.
On Wednesday 29 July, the jury at the Old Bailey in London found Johannes Kongsnes Natland guilty of conspiracy to murder. The jury deliberated for just over 17 hours. Sentencing will take place this autumn.
Natland was found guilty of conspiracy to murder. He will be sentenced this autumn. Photo: Crown Prosecution Service
“I’m getting paid to do it”
His mother insists that her son could never have carried out a murder.
“I know Johannes better than anyone. He could never have harmed anyone; he would never have been capable of it. He had never seen a gun in his life,” she says.
The jury was shown something quite different.
Johannes’ girlfriend, Sara (19), testified for the prosecution. She told the court that Natland had written to her:
“Now I finally get to kill someone, and it’s perfect. I’m getting paid to do it.”
After collecting the weapons from a forest outside Huddersfield, he sent her a photograph of himself smiling while holding a pistol. The caption read:
“It’s happening soon.”
When a friend asked whether he had tested the weapons, he replied that they would be tested on “the guy”.
From prison in London, he telephoned his girlfriend. The conversation was played in court. During the call, Natland admitted that he had put his hands around her throat.
“I strangled you a little. I did, yes. I’ll tell them when I get home: ‘I strangled her, sorry.’ I never hit you, OK?”
His girlfriend replied:
“You bloody well hit me. You hit me. You kicked me down the stairs. You strangled me. You smashed my phone. I have bruises – had bruises, I mean – the police took photographs.”
Recruited six weeks after discharge
Natland grew up in anything but cramped circumstances. He was raised in the oil city of Stavanger, the youngest of three siblings. Both parents are journalists. The family went on skiing holidays and travelled to the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium to watch his favourite team, Real Madrid.
“He was the class clown, but not because he was insecure,” his mother says.
During the pandemic he struggled with his mental health and dropped out of school. His mother describes his cannabis use as self-medication. The court heard that he later progressed to ecstasy, LSD, cocaine and heroin.
At the age of 17, he became convinced that his parents were trying to kill him and locked himself in his brother’s bedroom with a kitchen knife. He was repeatedly admitted to a psychiatric unit and placed in a child welfare institution.
It was at that institution that he met the boy who would later send him the message.
Natland had been discharged from psychiatric care for six weeks and had been assessed as “improving” when the message arrived. It concerned a “japping” – Swedish slang for a killing – in England. The reward was NOK 270,000. The hitman would then be smuggled out of the country.
“Nothing can go wrong,” the message read.
Minutes later, he was added to a group chat with a Stavanger-based recruiter using the nickname “The General” and a senior Foxtrot recruiter using the alias “Agent 47”, taken from the computer game Hitman.
The price was agreed. He intended to spend the money on more drugs.
Norwegian police knew two days before he flew
Natland flew from Stavanger to Manchester on 17 March 2025 using an emergency passport. He had £40 in cash, a mobile phone and a small bag of clothes.
But the Norwegian authorities had already been alerted from several sources.
On 15 March, Norwegian police intercepted a message in which “The General” referred to “a job in Europe”. Two days later, “The General” was arrested at Oslo Airport in connection with another case.
At roughly the same time, both a teacher and a fellow pupil contacted the police. Outside a house party, Natland had boasted that he was involved with “the foxes” – an obvious reference to Foxtrot.
“I’m going to make loads of money. Someone’s going to die,” he is alleged to have said.
Nevertheless, he flew out of the country on the very day his recruiter was arrested at Gardermoen Airport.
It was not until late on 18 March that Norwegian investigators traced him to Huddersfield. At 5.15 the following morning, British counter-terrorism officers kicked in the hotel room door. Natland emerged bare-chested, shaped his hand like a pistol and aimed it at the armed officers before being forced against the wall.
Under the bed they found a plastic bag containing a semi-automatic pistol, a revolver and twelve live rounds of ammunition.
The intended victim has never been identified.
Iran pays, Norway delivers
The Foxtrot network is led by the Swedish-Iraqi national Rawa Majid (39), known as “The Kurdish Fox”. Following a bloody internal conflict in 2023, Majid fled to Iran, where, according to the information available, he reached an agreement with the regime: attacks on Iran’s enemies in Europe in exchange for protection.
Since then, Foxtrot has been linked to attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets in several European countries. Both the United Kingdom and the United States have imposed sanctions on the network.
According to the Daily Mail, “Agent 47” is Ali Shehab (22), a close ally of Majid and one of the network’s principal recruiters. It was he who gave Natland his instructions.
The business model is known as “crime as a service”. Contracts for arson, murder and bombings are advertised in chat groups. Children as young as 13 are paid to carry them out. The largest group, Samurai Kids, had between 10,000 and 11,000 members before Telegram shut it down.
The network systematically targets vulnerable young people in public institutions.
Three youths from Stavanger were involved in the Huddersfield plot. “The General”, the local recruiter, was younger than Natland. The 17-year-old was convicted in Norway shortly before the British trial began, including for orchestrating two murders in Sweden and for complicity in the attempted murder in Huddersfield. He cannot be identified by name. A 16-year-old is still awaiting trial.
“A victim of human trafficking”
Ellen Kongsnes believes her son is a victim of human trafficking.
“I clearly believe there is an element of threats, grooming and trafficking of young, vulnerable boys,” she says.
The family has spent almost £100,000 – more than NOK 1 million – visiting their son in Thameside and Belmarsh prisons in London. They have taken out loans to finance the trips. His mother hopes he can be transferred to Norway to serve his sentence.
She fears that his sentence could exceed the 21 years imposed on Anders Behring Breivik.
“We are all devastated. Our son is not a violent person, he has no criminal record, he has never harmed anyone and he never would,” Kongsnes said after the conviction.
His former girlfriend testified in court that she had bruises and that the police photographed them.
Johannes Kongsnes Natland is expected to be sentenced at the Old Bailey this autumn.
Many readers of the Daily Mail reacted strongly to the mother’s account. One wrote that it was typical that, because he did not come from a working-class background, people assumed he must have been manipulated by others.
Another commented:
“It is perfectly obvious that he has no moral compass. Yet his mother still cannot see it.”