Care worker stabbed in the neck by service user convicted of attempted murder
Jennifer Jegervatn, 30, was stabbed in the neck during a home care visit on 26 May 2025. The service user had previously been convicted of attempted murder – information she had never received.
Home care worker attacked by service user with knife history – knew nothing
On 26 May 2025, Jennifer Jegervatn, 30, rings the doorbell of a service user she had visited many times before. Her task is to distribute medication. Seconds later, she feels something against her neck – blood begins to flow.
The man inside the door has been sitting in the living room for several hours with a kitchen knife, waiting for her.
"He shouts: 'You will die. You will die.' When I back out through the door, I realise that I have been stabbed. I manage to get the kitchen knife away with my hand," Jennifer Jegervatn tells Expressen.
Planned the attack in advance
According to police interviews, the man – who suffers from schizophrenia and hears voices daily – explains how the decision was made hours before Jennifer's arrival. In the interview, he states that his CD player had broken and that he then convinced himself that it was Jehovah's Witnesses who had caused it. Jennifer has no connection to Jehovah's Witnesses.
"I decided then to carry out that act of violence against her," the man says in the police interview according to Expressen.
His intention was to stab her in the carotid artery.
Convicted of attempted murder already in 2017
What Jennifer did not know was that the man had been convicted in 2017 of an earlier attempted murder – also an unprovoked knife attack, also directed at someone he had linked to Jehovah's Witnesses. He was then sentenced to closed forensic psychiatric care with special discharge review.
At the time of the attack on Jennifer, the closed care had been converted to open forensic psychiatric care. As a condition, he was to receive medication daily in the presence of home care personnel – which explained Jennifer's presence.
"In the ambulance to the hospital, I hear them say on the radio that the service user has previously been convicted of attempted murder. That is the first time I hear that information," says Jennifer.
Staff lacked basic information
Jennifer states that she and her colleagues knew that the man was mentally ill and that one should not enter his home on certain occasions – he had previously locked in colleagues. But there was no information about his history of violence.
"We have no training in how to care for seriously mentally ill people. And in this case, we had no idea that he had tried to kill people. Nor that he had been in forensic psychiatry for attempted murder," she says.
Expressen has spoken to around twenty people working within home care. Few of them want to speak publicly, citing fear of losing their jobs or being subjected to poor treatment in the workplace.
Convicted again in October 2025
On 20 October 2025, the court announced its verdict: the man is convicted again of attempted murder – this time against Jennifer Jegervatn – to closed forensic psychiatric care with special discharge review.
For Jennifer, the aftermath has meant months of sick leave, financial consequences and lasting psychological difficulties.
"I wake up in the middle of the night and think that he is standing in the room holding the knife still. Even though it has been over a year now," she says.
Outside the gate, she received help from a passing couple who called 112 and fetched a towel to press against the neck wound.
Hopes to remain in the care sector
Jennifer states that she wants to continue working in care and support – but not within home care.
"Perhaps a care home or personal assistant work," she says.
Source: Expressen