Norwegian athletics coach Gjert Ingebrigtsen instructed a court docket on Monday he “loves” his kids and was simply an “overly protecting” father as he denied abuse allegations.
Ingebrigtsen, 59, is on trial in Norway accused of bodily and mentally abusing his 24-year-old son Jakob and one other of his kids.
Double Olympic champion Jakob stated when giving proof final week that his father “manipulated” and “managed” him all through his upbringing and detailed a sequence of alleged incidents.
Gjert addressed the court docket on the felony case in Sandnes in his personal defence. He stated he had tried to defend all seven of his kids, two extra of whom additionally turned profitable athletes.
“I turned a father very early, with an infinite want to guard. I turned what one may name overly protecting,” Gjert was quoted as saying in court docket by Norwegian state broadcaster NRK.
“Highlighting related incidents in relation to the fees could make it appear to be I’m being portrayed negatively in direction of my kids. However I like my kids immensely.”
Gjert Ingebrigtsen instructed the court docket the ambition of a few of his kids had been “completely excessive” once they began to take part in sports activities.
“I by no means heard ‘may you please’, however quite fully totally different calls for and expectations,” Gjert stated.
“The calls for from the kids have been about district degree, nationwide degree, European degree, and world degree. Later, ‘Dad’ turned ‘Gjert’, and ‘Gjert’ turned ‘the accused’.”
It was alleged in court docket final week that Gjert struck Jakob a number of instances after he acquired a adverse report about his behaviour from college when he was aged eight.
Jakob additionally stated that in 2008, when he was about the identical age, his father hit him within the face as a result of he was late for a race.
He described one other incident a 12 months later when he alleged Gjert kicked him within the abdomen after he fell off a scooter.
Jakob additionally alleged his father threatened him in 2016, and one other episode across the identical time when Gjert was stated to have thrown his video games console out of the window.
