'Killer' boys forgiven by grieving mother

Oslo - The grieving mother of a five-year-old girl said yesterday that she forgave the boys who beat the child and let her freeze to death in a crime that horrified Norway. 'I cannot hate or bear a grudge against small children,' Beathe Redegaard told the daily Dagbladet. 'They cannot have understood what they did. I forgive those who killed my daughter.'

Police said the girl, Silje Marie Redegaard, was found frozen to death on Saturday on a playground in the western Norwegian town of Trondheim after being viciously stoned and kicked by her three playmates.

'A combination of factors contributed to the death, but according to the preliminary autopsy report, the actual cause of death was extreme hypothermia,' said Harald Moholt of the Trondheim police. Reuter/AP