Lay judge's competence in a criminal case

Justices: Endresen, Matheson, Bull, Kallerud, Høgetveit Berg

In a rape case in the Court of Appeal, one of the lay judges belonging to the majority who found the defendant guilty was deputy chairman of the board at the inter-municipal local center for battered women. The Supreme Court found that this position did not make her disqualified under section 108 of the Courts of Justice Act. The aggrieved party had not been in contact with the centre, and the position did not give the public reasonable and objective grounds to doubt the lay judge's competence in a rape case like the one at hand.