Testimony by an Ex-coworker of Åsmund Skuterud (Koèju / Jazz in Khartoum)

On May 25-26, we received an email from one of Åsmund Skuterud (Koèju / Jazz in Khartoum)'s ex-coworkers, who was sexually involved with him once. She asked us to have a chat to share more details so that we had four more contacts during the period from May 31 to July 2.


In her testimony, the subject Åsmund Skuterud showed some characteristic antisocial traits:


1. Exploitative Relationships to Gain Personal Achievement

• Our informant had the first encounter with the subject Asmund Skuterud in July 2016 after a Koèju concert. It was a meeting with a business purpose. She described that the first sexual encounter with him was "accidental". 
• In July 2016, she started to work with the subject to book the gigs in Asia. During the booking process, he persistently asked her to come to Taiwan and told her that she should stay at his flat when she visiting since the tour earning is small. His message implied another sexual encounter. 
• The informant also testified that she observed many of his "friends (with benefits)" at Koèju concerts and his coworker Simon Matthew Valentine (aka Simon Matthew Jones-Tyridal) looked like being got used to see that scene.

According to her testimony and the collected information that the majority of his female coworkers in Koèju project have sexually involved with him, we could find two behavioral patterns related to interpersonal manipulation:

[1] The subject tends to approach the female body people in the music field sexually / romantically with intention and tries to make them get involved in Koèju project.
[2] The subject invites all non-field people who are "sexually / romantically" involved with him at the moment to Koèju concerts.



2. Risky Sexual Behavior

Before having the first sexual intercourse with Åsmund Skuterud in July 2016, our informant asked him several times if he had a girlfriend / any other regular partner and if he had multiple sexual partners since she had a serious health problem caused by her past partner's risky sexual behaviors. The subject Mr. Skuterud answered her, "I had a girlfriend before and I don't have any partner now."

After the sexual intercourse, she had a conversation with Mr. Skuterud approximately for 3 hours. During the conversation, he told her "All the people who sleep with me become my friends. Think you have a boyfriend here." Additionally, he mentioned that he normally meets sexual partners on the dating app called Tinder every time he arrives in a new country and he had been in a casual relationship with someone until the day before he met her and he didn't see any problem with that.

After receiving the message from the researcher in November 2016, she went to get the Pap Smear / HPV DNA test and got the diagnosis of high risk HPV. The result indicated a high probability that the subject Åsmund Skuterud transmitted her the virus since she had a long period of abstinence before and after the sexual encounter in July 2016. Mr. Skuterud was informed by her that she got the diagnosis of HPV type 66 in December, 2016. 



3. Pathological Deceitfulness

Her testimony proved that Åsmund Skuterud's deception was not impulsive. His lying and smear campaign were pathological and previously planned. Additionally, a strong tendency to blame others was observed:

• During the sexual encounter with our informant in July 2016, the subject kept texting a person. When she asked him who that person was, he said "It's a friend I have to answer." (*The person who he was texting at the moment was the researcher. It was a conversation about how his concert was and he answered: "It was great. The audience enjoyed the music so it was okay.") 
• In the conversation that they had after the sexual encounter, the subject mentioned about his suicidal Norwegian ex-girlfriend (*an invented story) and other girls who had problems with him. Also, he told her that his ex-girlfriend had a depression so he was having problem to organize gigs since he had to keep talking to her. 

• When our informant was working with the subject Mr. Skuterud as a booking manager in Asia, he used to give excuses such as 'He was having mental problems because of the intense stress for "helping" his suicidal ex-girlfriend. He was getting psychiatric consulting (*false statement) and also his father gave something for him to get better.'

In this part, we could observe that he doesn't feel any guilt or remorse for lying, that is a notable antisocial trait. Additionally, the subject prepared the smear campaign about the researcher previously.


His coworker Simon Matthew Valentine (aka Simon Matthew Jones-Tyridal)'s reaction, reported by our informant, also supports our analysis and shows the subject's manipulative and deceitful behavioral patterns:

• After receiving a message from the researcher in November 2016, she asked Simon Matthew Valentine about the situation. He said, "Don't answer her. I will explain everything". His explanation was that the researcher had "some very big psychological problems" and was "in a lot of emotional pain because of depression". Additionally, he described that the author of this blog was "basically trying to ruin Åsmund's life".

• During the same period in November 2016, she couldn't hear any word from the subject Åsmund Skuterud directly and he was communicating only with Simon Matthew Valentine.
• In December 2016, Mr. Skuterud called her via Skype several times to "explain" about the researcher. His explanation was basically the author of this blog had a big psychological problem and was asking a big amount of money.

In the details of this conversation between them, especially in Mr. Valentine(aka Mr. Jones-Tyridal)'s reaction, we could realize how Mr. Skuterud twisted the facts to victimize himself:

[1] Depression (unipolar) was described as a serious mental problem that could cause a violent action against others such as schizophrenia or antisocial personality disorders, with the exaggerated phrases "some very big psychological problems" and "in a lot of emotional pain because of depression". This shows that he had an intention to mislead people since he has some knowledge in clinical psychology because of his family.

[2] The researcher's claim during the period from August to October in 2016, that was asking STD / HPV exam costs and cutting the relationship off after the payment, was described as "trying to ruin Åsmund's life"

Additionally, we discovered that the subject Åsmund Skuterud used Mr. Valentine as a spokesman at the beginning and tried to control the information telling the people involved "Don't answer her". After setting the deception plan, he began to communicate with them again.



3. Irresponsibility and Inflated Self Image

Irresponsibility and grandiosity were observed in the subject's behaviors. Our informant mentioned that the subject used to act in a non-professional way in the booking process for concerts. At the same time, he showed grandiose fantasies, saying phrases such as "Do you want to be a manager of the future super-star?".

Our informant has worked with the subject Asmund Skuterud to organize the gigs in Asia since July, 2016. During the period of the booking process, he rarely answered her text and didn't give any data for the concerts within time. When she claimed about his non-professional attitude and procrastination, the subject used to give her following excuses:

1. He was busy to "help" his suicidal ex-girlfriend.
2. He was getting an intense stress.
3. He was getting psychiatric consulting and also his father gave something to help him.
4. He was having a wrist pain.

However, the communication problem with him continued. To complete booking, she had to contact his coworker Simon Matthew Valentine to organize the Koèju concerts, instead of having conversation with Mr. Skuterud. Before receiving the Facebook message from the researcher in November 2016, she already cancelled all the next programmed gigs in Asia, considering his non-professional attitude observed in this preparation process.



4. Other Aspect

• The informant reported that the subject Åsmund Skuterud contacted her with his coworker Simon Matthew Valentine's account during the period December, 2016 - February, 2017. 

This could be because he had to show his account to make other victims believe his deception and he needed to hide her existence to them. Considering that he used Mr. Valentine's account in February 2016 in Bogota, Colombia, the subject might have been using the social media accounts of Mr. Valentine for a long time to keep his manipulative relationships.


P.S. After publishing this post, the subject Mr. Skuterud sent our informant a message that says "I did think of you as a friend, AND, smarter than that." without any apology about his behaviors on July 5, 2017. On the same day, Mr. Skuterud contacted her coworkers and told them about her report to threaten her. The informant sent us a screenshot of the message on July 6, 2017. 

(*We don't upload the screenshot because of the informant's request.)


Conclusion

The testimony supports the original observation about the subject. The subject showed the characteristic traits of NPD (Narcissistic Personality Disorder); grandiosity, attention seeking, and impaired empathy and intimacy in interpersonal interaction (APA, 2012). The newly discovered traits in this report are general irresponsibility and pathological deception. Hence, there is a possibility of comorbidity with another Cluster B personality disorder or ADHD (Turgay, A., 2004).


*Note: The mentioned mental disorders in this page is not officially diagnosed. We use their medical definitions to describe efficiently the characteristic traits of the subject Åsmund Skuterud (Koèju) and clearly limit the conclusion at the level of tendency and possibility.




References

American Psychiatric Association. (2012). DSM-IV and DSM-5 Criteria for the Personality Disorders. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.
Turgay, A. (2004). Treatment of comorbidity in conduct disorder with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Essential psychopharmacology, 6(5), 277-290.

July 2017