Father and former coach of the Ingebrigtsen athletes says he hates violence and didn’t intentionally harm his kids
Gjert Ingebrigtsen, who’s dealing with six years in jail for abusive behaviour towards his two of his kids, Jakob and Ingrid, has denied all allegations of violence throughout an ongoing court docket case in Norway this week.
The 59-year-old says he didn’t beat Olympic 5000m champion Jakob whereas he was rising up. Neither, he claims, did he whip his daughter Ingrid with a moist towel.
The latter incident in 2022 led to Jakob and his brothers Henrik and Filip severing ties with him and going public with the main points.
Gjert instructed the court docket {that a} purple mark on Ingrid’s face in {a photograph} taken after the alleged incident could have been brought on by a pores and skin situation corresponding to pimples, which he says his household are vulnerable to.
“The state of affairs was heated,” Gjert mentioned. “Ugly issues have been mentioned in loud voices. There was a response from me that was not excellent on my half, I can’t say something extra.”
He added: “I nonetheless don’t have any recollection of getting overwhelmed Jakob or anybody else – both in my family or others.”
Final week, Ingrid, who’s now 18, instructed the court docket she had been “whipped” within the face with a moist towel after her father had refused to let her play outdoors.
However Gjert says his towel had solely made contact along with her finger. “I’m drying my neck with a towel,” Gjert instructed the court docket. “She’s actually indignant and says: ‘I f***ing don’t need to be on this jail of yours any extra,’ whereas holding her index finger at me.
“I pull the towel in opposition to her finger twice in fast succession. She then says: ‘What the hell are you doing, are you hitting me?’ To which I reply: ‘I didn’t hit you.’”
Gjert additionally denied claims that he kicked Jakob after he fell off a scooter when he was eight or 9 years outdated. “It’s utterly unthinkable that I might have kicked him,” he mentioned. “It’s utterly out of the query to kick one in all my kids.”
Gjert did, nonetheless, admit that he threw a PlayStation out of a window after a row, including: “Jakob has been a privileged boy his entire life, he’s been allowed to do and say no matter he desires. He’s nearly been carried on a golden chair his entire life. There have been totally different opinions associated to the discussions, unquestionably. However nothing bodily.”
Gjert additionally denied calling Jakob “silly”, an “fool”, and “a terrorist” when he was rising up.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Getty)
The court docket additionally heard a recording that Henrik had secretly manufactured from an argument between himself and Gjert. At one level within the recording Gjert instructed Henrik: “You have got fired me as a coach. You have got rejected us as mother and father and you might be finishing up an ideal character assassination on high of that. What we now have labored for, you erase with a stroke of a pen. And then the final little bit of my earnings goes away.”
Additionally they mentioned Ingrid having to go to little one companies. “These folks need to harm me and drag me right down to hell,” Gjert instructed Henrik. “They will destroy me as a human being.”
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