Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s father, Gjert Ingebrigtsen, has denied kicking the double Olympic gold medallist and whipping his daughter in the face with a wet towel.
In the beginning of the second week of the trial, Gjert continuously broke down in tears, insisting that he had never hit anyone in life, adding that he had been so much against violence that he was discharged from the military.
Across five hours of the hearing, Gjert acknowledged throwing the PlayStation out of a second floor after a row and accepted being a demanding coach to his three sons, Jakob, Henrik and Filip to international titles.
Gjert, who could face six years in jail, denied all the allegations of violence. Last week, his daughter Ingrid, 18, told the court that she had been whipped in the face with a wet towel after her father didn’t allow her to play outside.
“I’m drying my neck with a towel,” Gjert told the court in Sandnes, Norway. “She’s really angry and says: ‘I fucking don’t want to be in this prison of yours any more,’ while holding her index finger at me.
“I pull the towel against her finger twice in quick succession. She then says: ‘What the hell are you doing, are you hitting me?’ To which I reply: ‘I didn’t hit you.’
Coaxed by the judge on whether it was really the finger, Gjert replied: “Yes, given the distance we were standing at, and the size of the towel, nothing else would be possible.”
The court was shown a picture of Ingrid with a red mark, following the incident, to which, Gjert said, it was caused by ‘acne or a skin reaction’.
When asked if the blow had hurt. He said: “No, I think it hurt both of us. And I think the ‘hurt’ wasn’t physical. I think it was much more emotional. She was very disappointed, sad and scared all at once that I could do what I did.”
Gjert also denied claims of kicking Jakob, when the Tokyo 1500m and Paris 5,000m Olympic champion, fell off a scooter when he was eight or nine.
“It is completely unthinkable that I would have kicked him,” he said. “It is completely out of the question to kick one of my children.”
Gjert denied several other allegations against him. The trial is due till May 16.
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