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Brit held for throwing pie at Norway's equality minister

NTB/The Local
NTB/The Local - [email protected]
Brit held for throwing pie at Norway's equality minister
The woman accepted the court's judgement but denied having planned the pie attack. Photo: Erik Fosheim Brandsborg / NTB scanpix

A British woman will be held on remand for for weeks for attacking Norwegian Equality Minister Solveig Horne with a cream pie, the Oslo District Court ruled on Monday.

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The 22-year-old woman threw the shaving cream pie at Horne during the Oslo Pride Parade on June 25th. 
 
The woman accepted the court's ruling on the spot after a short consultation with her lawyer, Kaja de Vibe Malling, but denied that the pieing was a premeditated act. 
 
“I have spoken with her [and] she has not admitted to doing it. It was in any case not something she planned. She was here to visit friends,” de Vibe Malling told broadcaster NRK.
 
Police Attorney Signe Kathrine Aalling told NRK that 22-year-old is charged with an ”attack on democracy".
 
District Court Judge Per Kaare Nerdrum pointed out in the judgement that the fact that it was a shaving cream pie does not change the risk assessment.
 
“If it is important to throw cream pies on others, one has to choose other victims than the king, government officials, parliament or members of the Supreme Court,” he read from the verdict.
 
The ruling made reference to a similar pieing incident against the then Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen (SV) in 2005. In that case, a man in his mid-20s was sentenced to 30 days in prison by both the Oslo District Court and Court of Appeal but the Supreme Court revoked the verdict two years later. 
 
When it comes to the pieing of Horne, Nerdrum noted that the matter is not less worthy of punishment just because Horne chose to continue walking the parade route after the attack. 
 
The court concluded that there is reason to fear that the accused, a British citizen, will evade prosecution if she is released. The 22-year-old claims to be without residence or work in Norway or elsewhere. 
 
According to the ruling, the woman will appear in court on July 7th. The maximum penalty for an “attack on democracy” is ten years in prison, but de Vibe Malling said she was confident that her client would get a much more lenient sentence if convicted. 

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