Ulf Leirstein takes a break from his positions

Ulf Isak Leirstein, Progress Party (FrP) Østfold. Photo: Stortinget.no

Ulf Leirstein takes a break from his positions – admits unacceptable behavior

MP for the Progress Party, Ulf Leirstein, has sent porn to young party members, reports NRK. Leirstein apologizes for this and withdraws from his duties for the foreseeable future.

 

According to , NRK Leirstein has sent several eposts to young boys who were active in The youth organization in Østfold. One of them was 14 years old at the time and therefore even under the sexual age of consent.

NRK has copies of several eposts. In one of them supposedly contained 44 hard porn images, another one 11.

Leirstein has himself posted a message on Facebook.

– NRK today presents an old case where an anonymous boy, who was 14 years old at the time, tells about emails and text messages from me with sexual content. Without commenting on all that is revealed, I acknowledge that I have crossed the line, and I am sorry about that, writes Leirstein.

– I did not mean to offend anybody. I went through a tough period and I did things I’m not proud of. Both as an individual and an electorate, it is unacceptable from me. I’m sorry for my poor judgment. I am now taking a timeout and abandoning my positions for now, Leirstein continues.

New to me

The party’s parliamentary leader, Hans Andreas Limi, tells NTB that the information about Leirstein’s inappropriate behavior is new to him.

– The information about the case is very novel to us. We learned about it yesterday, via NRK, says Limi.

He describes Leirstein’s decision to take a timeout and to withdraw from his positions as a wise decision by the parliamentary representative in what is a challenging situation for the party. At the same time, he states that this is an old matter and not a whistle blower case.

– The best thing would have been to get in touch with the person directly to aquire more details, Frp’s parliamentary leader emphasizes, at the same time stating that he does not dispute that which can be documented, such as sms’es and emails. He was briefly in touch with Leirstein on Tuesday

Extreme discomfort

NRK has also talked to the boy who was 14 years old when he received the email in 2012.

He says he felt an extreme discomfort, but did not dare to proceed with the case because of Leirstein’s position.

Criminal expert at the University of Bergen,  Erling Husabø, states that distributing pornography to people under the age of 18 is a violation of section 317 of the Penal Code and has can lead to a 3-years term in prison.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today