No one was convicted in the Silje case, but a four-year-old, a five-year-old and a six-year-old were singled out as guilty of the girl's death.
The accused children first testified that they saw young people abusing Silje but changed their stories and later admitted guilt.
There was never a trial and the investigation has received criticism for, among other things, lack of technical evidence and urgent interrogation.
- The overall criticism is that the evidence would not have been kept in court, says Anna Nordbeck, reporter and producer at Dokument infra and who worked with the series Fallet Silje.
In the autumn, the police in Trøndelag asked the Norwegian National Criminal Police, Kripos, to review the case and assess whether it should be taken up again.
At the same time, the researcher Asbjørn Rachlew investigated the police work on behalf of the Public Prosecutor.
In his report, Rachlew recommended that the case should be re-examined and on Friday, prosecutor Bjørn Kristian Soknes confirmed that the case will be resumed, reports NRK.
Decided too early
- My opinion is that the case was decided at a premature stage, before a large part of the investigation was completed, says prosecutor Bjørn Kristian Soknes to NRK.
Anna Nordbeck thinks it is good that the case will now be examined again and hopes that the designated persons will receive a fair assessment.
- If you look at the shortcomings in the Silje investigation, the children should not have been singled out.
Like the Kevin case, the rule of law was broken for those whom society should protect the most, she says.
One of the designated boys that NRK spoke to is positive that the case will be taken up again, even if he will not get rid of the wounds from before.
- It had very big consequences, both for me and my family, says the man who wants to remain anonymous and adds:
- We were never technically convicted, but at that time Trondheim was not a big city and we lived in Tiller, a small town.
We were stamped.