Rune Øygard (born 27 April 1959) is a former Norwegian politician representing the

Norwegian Labour Party The Labour Party (; , A or Ap; ), formerly The Norwegian Labour Party (, DNA), is a Social democracy, social democratic List of political parties in Norway, political party in Norway. It is positioned on the centre-left of the political spectru ...

, who served as

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Vågå Vågå () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of ...

from 1995 to 2012 when he was granted leave following his

indictment An indictment ( ) is a formal accusation that a person has committed a crime. In jurisdictions that use the concept of felonies, the most serious criminal offense is a felony; jurisdictions that do not use that concept often use that of an ind ...

for

child sexual abuse Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in Human sexual activity, sexual activit ...

in a much publicized case, the so-called Vågå case. On 17 December 2012, he was found guilty of child sexual abuse, including sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl, and sentenced to 4 years

imprisonment Imprisonment or incarceration is the restraint of a person's liberty for any cause whatsoever, whether by authority of the government, or by a person acting without such authority. In the latter case it is considered " false imprisonment". Impri ...

. The same day, he resigned as mayor.

Early life and civil career

Øygard grew up in

Skjåk Skjåk is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Bismo. Most of the municipal residents live in the Billingsdalen ...

, the neighbouring municipality of Vågå. He was co-owner of a book store in Vågå and subsequently editor-in-chief of the local radio station Ottadalsradioen before entering full-time politics in 1995 when he was elected mayor. Øygard has formerly been Secretary-General of the Norwegian youth organisation Norges Bygdeungdomslag (Norwegian Rural Youth).

Political career

He was regarded as a successful mayor who was described by Prime Minister

Jens Stoltenberg Jens Stoltenberg (; born 16 March 1959) is a Norwegian politician from the Labour Party. Since 2025, he has been the Minister of Finance in the Støre Cabinet. He has previously been the prime minister of Norway and secretary general of NATO. ...

as one of his political role models. According to the

NRK The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

, he has for several years been one of the Labour Party's most prominent mayors nationwide. In the

2007 Norwegian local elections Country-wide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway on 10 September 2007, with some areas polling on 9 September as well. For most places this meant that two elections, the municipal elections and ...

, his party got 70% of the votes in Vågå. In 2009, the nationwide publication

Kommunal Rapport ''Kommunal Rapport'' () is a Norwegian daily news web site and weekly newspaper which covers municipal affairs. The newspaper was established in 1987. In 2011, the media company established an independent subscription based, digital publication ...

named him "Municipal Figure of the Year." Øygard has been described as a "fairly high-ranking figure" within the Labour Party. In September 2011, he was indicted by Norwegian police of

, and in May 2012, he requested temporary leave from his office as Mayor pending the outcome of his imminent trial. His much publicized trial started in October 2012, dominating news coverage of Norwegian media. Øygard was asked to resign permanently by his own party, but refused to do so. After being found guilty and sentenced to four years

, Rune Øygard resigned as mayor. His resignation was granted by the municipal council on 18 December 2012, effective immediately.

Trials (the Øygard case)

He came to broad national media attention when he was indicted by the police (''siktet'') of

in 2011. Despite being indicted of child sexual abuse, he was reelected as mayor by the municipal council following the

2011 Norwegian local elections Nationwide local elections for seats in municipality and county councils were held throughout Norway on 12 September 2011. Several municipalities also opened the polling booths on 11 September. For polling stations this meant that two elections, t ...

. He only asked for temporary leave from his political office in May 2012, following his final indictment by the public prosecutor (''tiltale'') the previous month and repeated calls to leave office from the Secretary-General of his party (

Raymond Johansen Raymond Johansen (born 14 February 1961) is a Norwegian politician for the Labour Party. He served as Governing Mayor of Oslo from 2015 to 2023. A former member of the Socialist Left Party, Johansen previously served as the Oslo city commission ...

) since his first indictment the year before. His trial started in October 2012. He is accused of sexually abusing a girl who was under the age of 14 (and 37 years his junior), over several years, including more than 50 instances of

sexual intercourse Sexual intercourse (also coitus or copulation) is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion of the Erection, erect male Human penis, penis inside the female vagina and followed by Pelvic thrust, thrusting motions for sexual pleasure ...

from the girl was 13 years old. Adding to the interest in the case, Øygard had met the girl together with Prime Minister

several times (including in the Prime Minister's home), leading the girl's lawyer to ask for Stoltenberg to testify in the case; however, the public prosecutor in the case, Thorbjørn Klundseter, opted against this. Iselin Jonassen is acting mayor of Vågå in Øygard's absence. On 12 October 2012, Prime Minister

and the central leadership of the Norwegian Labour Party demanded that Øygard be removed from his position as mayor in light of the revelations. The following day, it became known that Øygard refuses to resign voluntarily.

Verdict

He was found guilty of child sexual abuse and sentenced to 4 years

on 17 December 2012 by Sør-Gudbrandsdal District Court. (The maximum punishment stipulated by the laws that he broke, were 10 years in prison and a mandatory minimum sentence of 3 years.) Restitution to his victim was set at

NOK Nok is a village in Jaba, Nigeria, Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The village is an archeological site. Archaeology The discovery of terracotta figurines at this location caused its name to be used for the Nok culture, ...

150,000 and he was ordered to pay NOK 25,000 in legal costs.

Appellate court

On 29 April 2013 he testified in the trial in the

appellate court An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear a case upon appeal from a trial court or other lower tribunal. Appel ...

. On 30 May 2013, he was sentenced to one year and three months in prison.

Supreme Court

The

Supreme Court of Norway The Supreme Court of Norway ( Norwegian Bokmål: ; Norwegian Nynorsk: ; lit. 'Highest Court') is the highest court in the Norwegian judiciary. It was established in 1815 on the basis of section 88 in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Norway, ...

made the final verdict in the case on 26 September 2013, after appeals by both Øygard and the prosecutor. The Supreme Court confirmed the appellate court's guilty verdict, and increased Øygard's sentence to two years and three months. Øygard reported to begin serving his sentence at

Ullersmo Prison Ullersmo Prison () is a prison in Ullensaker, Akershus. It was opened in 1970. The prison was intended as a replacement for the Botsfengselet in Oslo. It is used for long term prisoners from the whole of Norway Norway, officially the King ...

on 11 December 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oygard, Rune 1959 births 21st-century Norwegian criminals Norwegian male criminals Norwegian politicians convicted of crimes People from Skjåk Radio editors Norwegian editors Labour Party (Norway) politicians Mayors of places in Norway Norwegian people convicted of child sexual abuse Norwegian prisoners and detainees Prisoners and detainees of Norway Living people Child sexual abuse in Norway