THE 51-year-old Norwegian slain in Consolacion after allegedly holding four persons hostage had been convicted of rape and drugs charges and served time in jail in Norway.

Nils Frode Steen Aksnes had been jailed for a string of cases in his hometown, according to the newspaper Fredriksstad Blad, whose website is at www.f-b.no.

Meanwhile, the complaint police filed against the three persons implicated in Aksnes’s killing lacked the supporting affidavits of witnesses.

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But Police Senior Insp. Jesus Elmer Fernandez filed the murder case against cousins Nisil Ceriales, Cheril Nocete and a 16-year-old girl, saying the statements and evidence he examined “will establish probable cause.”

The respondents asked the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor to conduct a preliminary investigation so they could challenge the complaint.

Aksnes’s Filipina wife has accused the three respondents of conspiring with one another in the killing, which took place while their nine-year-old daughter was in the same house.

Record

In 1983, Aksnes was convicted of the rape of a 15-year-old girl in the town of Fredrikstad, Norway. He had held the girl captive for five hours. Aksnes was sentenced to four years in prison for the offense, Fredriksstad Blad journalist Svend Anders Karlsen-Moum told Sun.Star Cebu.

In 1987, Aksnes was convicted of smuggling drugs from Denmark to Norway. In 1989, he was sentenced to three to five years in prison for violence against his uncle and aunt whom visited for a cup of coffee.

In 1991, he was sentenced to five years in prison for raping a 26-year-old woman in Oslo, Norway. He was also charged with rape by a former girlfriend but he was cleared of it.

Out on parole in 1996, he fled Norway even if he only had a few months left in his sentence. He traveled to the Philippines, where Aksnes met his wife Teresa.

After having started a family with her, he returned to Norway and turned himself in to police in 2000.

Homecoming

At that time, Aksnes’s story got a lot of media attention and he was wanted by the police. Because he had no passport, he was arrested at an airport in Greece before he managed to return to Norway.

He was sent to Norway by police and finished his prison term. Upon his release, he moved back to Cebu and again met up with Teresa.

Last Tuesday, the Office of the Provincial Prosecutor refused to accept the complaint against the respondents for being incomplete. Police were given until the end of working hours today to re-file it, lest they become liable for detaining the suspects without charges.

The complaint re-filed yesterday had two affidavits of Teresa.

In the first affidavit, Teresa identified herself as the slain Norwegian’s wife and said the three respondents, residents of Pulang Tubig, Dumaguete City, conspired with one another in the killing.

In her second affidavit, she said that her nine-year-old daughter was in the house during the attack and saw the 16-year-old girl striking her father on the head with a bottle.

“When I asked her who stabbed her father with a knife, she replied that she doesn’t know,” Teresa said.

Hostages

Police Officer 3 Allan Maglangit, PO1 Winston Magdadaro, PO1 Giovanni Babano and PO1 Johnaskie Romero, all of the Consolacion Police Station, also issued an affidavit that was attached to the complaint.

They said they responded when Bobby Climaco sought police assistance “regarding a hostage-taking committed by a Norwegian national later identified as Nils Aksnes Frode Steen.”

They said they fetched the police investigator, SPO1 Ricardo Ermac, at home and then proceeded to the crime scene.

Upon their arrival, they saw the Norwegian lying on the floor unconscious and bleeding from stab wounds in different parts of his body.

They said the victim was taken to a hospital but was pronounced dead of multiple stab wounds at the Eversley Childs Sanitarium in Mandaue City.

The respondents, in turn, were in the house of Cerila Pepito and were “invited” to the police station for questioning.

Admission

The respondents sought the assistance of lawyer Helen Catacutan-Acas to submit a counter-affidavit.

The policemen said that during the investigation, the three admitted that they killed the Norwegian, who held them hostage.

Police said they recovered a .38 cal. revolver and two knives—one found inside the house and the other outside the subdivision.

The 16-year-old girl allegedly owned up to the stabbing after she and her two cousins—Ceriales and Nocete—were held hostage by Aksnes inside his house in Grantville Subdivision, Jugan, Consolacion.

Ceriales said the man held them at gunpoint and threatened to kill them if any of them tried to get out of the house.

He also allegedly ordered the 16-year-old girl to undress and have sex with Ceriales in his presence.

Out

When they had the chance, Ceriales grabbed the gun from Aksnes while the girl grabbed a broken bottle and struck the man’s head.

She then grabbed a knife and stabbed him several times.

Ceriales said he and his 16-year-old niece left the house Saturday night to attend a dance. They did not return until early Sunday morning.

They said they did not know that hours after they left, Aksnes went to Nocete with a firearm and allegedly bound and gagged her while her daughter was bound and locked inside a closet.

They said they also did not expect that they would be held hostage next when they got home.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on July 23, 2009.