Helge Solum Larsen

Solum Larsen was a goldsmith by education.[1]

From 1994 to 1997 he was leader of the Young Liberals of Norway, the youth wing of the Liberal Party.[1][2] He served as a deputy representative to the Parliament of Norway from Rogaland during the terms 1997–2001 and 2005–2009.[3]

In local politics he served several terms on the Stavanger city council, beginning as an alternate in 1987 and a full representative in 1991.[4][5] He chaired the city's Liberal Party chapter from 2000 to 2005 and the countywide party chapter from 2005 to 2010.[1] In 2008 he was elected to the national party board. He was elected deputy leader of the Liberal Party at the 2010 party convention.[2]

In February 2012, Solum Larsen resigned from all his party positions after a 17-year-old girl accused him of raping her at the Rogaland Liberal Party's annual congress in Suldal;[6][7][8] he said that only consensual sex had occurred,[9][10] and was briefly admitted to the psychiatric clinic at Stavanger University Hospital.[6][8] In October the Rogaland public prosecutor declined to pursue the case.[9][11] The decision was appealed,[12] but in January 2013, the Norwegian Prosecuting Authority also declined to prosecute, effectively dismissing the charges due to lack of evidence.[13] He left the Liberal Party,[2] but returned to politics in January 2014[14] and continued to serve on the Stavanger city council as an independent until October 2015.[4]

In local politics, Solum Larsen worked for integration and job opportunities for immigrants and for treatment-based policies towards drug addicts.[4] He actively defended the wooden buildings of Stavanger.[5] He was largely responsible for averting the digging up of Nytorget, and demolition of several of these, for the construction of an underground carpark.[15][16] In the area of development and transport, he was an advocate for railways who was largely responsible for the national government's decision in 2005 to double-track the railway in the Stavanger/Sandnes urban region,[1][17] and argued for light rail being central in the regional transport plan.[4][18][19] He was also involved in the discussions concerning the Ryfast tunnel connection and the new E39; he was influential in routing tunnels to benefit residents of Hundvåg, but his proposal for lengthening an E39 tunnel to reduce the impact on Tasta was rejected.[20][21][22]

Solum Larsen had two children. He died from a cerebral haemorrhage on 18 December 2015.[4][5][2]