Norwegian crown princess’s son found guilty of two counts of rape
Marius Borg Høiby, the 29-year-old son of Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit, was convicted of two counts of rape and sentenced to four years in prison.
Three judges in courtroom 250 of the Oslo District Court cleared him of two other counts of rape, but also found him guilty of several other crimes with which he was charged.
Høiby was not in court for the verdict but attended the hearing via video link.
Prosecutors had called for Høiby to be sentenced to seven years and seven months in prison. Defense lawyers had requested a shorter period of 18 months and could appeal the decision.
Marius Borg Høiby’s mother married into royalty when he was four, and although she grew up in the family, she is not a royal figure herself.
Mette-Marit is very ill with a form of pulmonary fibrosis and has recently been put on the list for a lung transplant. His son’s lawyers have repeatedly requested that he be released from prison so he can spend time with his mother due to her deteriorating health.
Following the verdict, Høiby’s defense lawyer Petar Sekulic asked the court once again for his release.
Judge Jon Sverdrup Efjestad, one of three judges on the trial, began the hearing early Monday with a summary of their conclusions before moving on to the 128-page ruling announcing the decision.
Høiby had denied all four rape allegations, but judges found him guilty of raping two women, one at the Crown Prince’s estate in Skaugum in 2018 and another in Oslo in 2024.
He was also found guilty of harassing his ex-girlfriend, Norwegian influencer Nora Haukland.
However, he was cleared of two more rapes, involving a woman he met at a hotel in Oslo in November 2024 and a woman he met while on holiday on the Lofoten islands in 2023.
Six women took part in the case against Høiby, but only one of the women heard the verdict in court.
Prosecutors said she was either motionless or asleep when she was raped after a party in Oslo in March 2024 and after having consensual sex.
Evidence that she had been raped was based on videos Høiby had taken at the time, and when giving evidence in February the woman told the court he was asleep and would never have allowed it.
The court accepted that the victim could not resist what happened.
All four rape charges involved women who were asleep or inactive at the time.
Høiby was also convicted of various offences, including harassment and reckless behavior towards a sixth woman from Oslo’s upscale Frogner district, at whose flat he was arrested in August 2024.
The court ruled that he must pay compensation totaling 640,000 kroner (£50,000; €57,000) to four women, including Nora Haukland, the only female judge to be named in the case.
