OSLO, Norway (AFP) — On trial for abusing his son, athletics star Jakob Ingebrigtsen, and his daughter, Gjert Ingebrigtsen on Monday told a Norwegian court he was an “overly protective” father.

Gjert Ingebrigtsen, 59, is accused of physical and psychological violence against two of his seven children, Jakob, 24, and his sister Ingrid, 18, over a total period of 14 years, from 2008 to 2022.

He faces up to six years in prison if found guilty of the charges, which he denies.

“I became a father very early, with an enormous need to protect,” he told the Sandnes district court according to broadcaster NRK.

“I became what one might call overly protective,” he added on the first day of his testimony which is expected to last three days.

Last week, in their respective testimonies, Jakob and Ingrid described a father who was authoritarian and manipulative and recalled episodes of physical and psychological violence.

Both of them have stopped calling Gjert Ingebrigtsen “father.”

Having become a father at the age of 22, Gjert Ingebrigtsen explained that being “the only boy in the family” — as his own father died of illness when he was four — he had to take on heavy responsibilities to support his mother and sisters.

In the absence of role models, he said he had, with his wife Tone, given a “traditional and patriarchal” upbringing to their seven children.

Ingebrigtsen said they had not “practiced any type of punishment” in the home, according to news agency NTB.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen and two of his brothers, Henrik and Filip, who are also athletes, shocked Norway in October 2023 when they accused their father, who had also been their coach, of using “physical violence” and “threats” as part of their upbringing.

The brothers’ allegations in an op-ed made headlines in Norway and abroad and prompted Norwegian police to open an investigation covering all of the seven Ingebrigtsen siblings.

Police dropped some of the accusations due to lack of evidence or the statute of limitations, but the prosecution retained several charges that involved Jakob and his sister Ingrid.

During the lengthy trial, set to continue until 16 May, the defense have said they will attempt to demonstrate the blurring of roles between father and coach required a demanding lifestyle to achieve elite performance, but it was not equivalent to domestic violence.

In 2022 Jakob, Henrik and Filip cut ties with their father.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen is the most successful of the three brothers, winning gold in the world championships over 5,000m in 2022 and 2023, and claiming the 1,500m and 3,000m titles in Nanjing to secure a rare world indoor double right before the opening of his father’s trial last Monday.

After pocketing the Olympic gold in the 1,500m in Tokyo in 2021, he also won the 5,000m title at last summer’s Paris Games.