Norwegian track and field coach Gjert Ingebrigtsen told the court Monday that he “love” his child and was just an “overly protective” father after deniing allegations of abuse.
Ingebrigtsen, 59, is on trial in Norway, where he was accused of physically and mentally abusing his 24-year-old son Jakob and another of his children.
Double Olympic champion Jacob said last week when he released evidence that his father grew up and “manipulated” and “controlled” a series of incidents.
Gjert spoke to the court in his own defense in Sandnes’ criminal case. He said he tried to protect all seven children.
“I was a father very quickly and had to be protected. I became what I might call overly protective,” Gjert was quoted as saying in court by Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
“I might look to be portrayed negatively towards my children to highlight the cases associated with the accusation. But I love my children very much.”
Gjert Ingebrigtsen told the court that when the ambitions of some of his children began to participate in the sport, it was “absolutely extreme.”
“I’ve never heard of ‘I can do it,’ but I’ve heard of completely different demands and expectations,” Gjert said.
“The demands from the children were about the district level, national level, European level, and world level. After that, the “father” became “gjert” and the “gjert” became “defendant.” ”
It was allegedly Gjert hit Jakob several times last week after receiving negative reports from the school about his behavior when he was 8 years old.
Jacob also said in 2008 when he was about the same age, his father slammed him in the face because he was late in the race.
He explained another incident a year later, when Gjert claimed that he kicked him in the stomach after he fell off the scooter.
Jacob also claimed his father had threatened him in 2016, and it was about the same time that Gjert was said to have kicked out his gaming console out the window.
