An Oslo court sentenced Marius Borg Høiby, the stepson of Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon, to 4 years in prison on Monday after he was found guilty on two counts of rape and one count of domestic violence.
The 29-year-old son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit, who married into the Norwegian royal family in 2001, was acquitted on two other rape charges. He faced 40 charges in total, starting from drug-related offences, assault and violating a restraining order.
He denied the rape allegations but admitted to several of the lesser offences.
He was also convicted of assault and abuse in a detailed relationship. Along with a jail sentence, Høiby was ordered to pay compensation to the victims.
He was not present in court on Monday due to health reasons, but watched the decision reading via a video link from prison, The Associated Press reported.
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Høiby’s lawyers told Norwegian media on Monday they intend to hunt his temporary release and file an appeal.
Høiby is “satisfied” with the relatively extensive acquittals, his defence lawyer Petar Sekulic said in an email to Swedish news agency TT, but would challenge the parts of the decision in regards to the two rapes and the abuse in a detailed relationship.
Prosecutors were searching for a sentence of seven years and 7 months in prison, while defence lawyers had argued that he ought to be acquitted of the rape allegations and receive not more than 18 months for offences he had admitted to.
An image taken on June 16, 2022, in Oslo, Norway, shows Marius Borg Høiby, the son of Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit.
Hakon Mosvold Larsen / NTB / AFP via Getty Images
During his trial, Høiby complained in regards to the media coverage and the way he had change into “an object of hatred,” the BBC reported.
“I’m not Marius anymore, I’m a monster. I’ve change into the hate goal of all of Norway,” he told the court.
In the course of the first week of the trial, the court heard testimony from a girl who claimed that Høiby raped her at an after-party within the basement of his parents’ estate outside Oslo in December 2018.
The girl said she felt “betrayal and shock” after police showed her videos of Høiby sexually assaulting her. She said she had no memory of what happened and referred to her memory as a “black hole.”
When asked in regards to the rape in 2018, Høiby told the court that he didn’t remember taking videos and denied that he had raped the girl. He said that they had consensual sex after other people on the after-party had gone to bed.
When asked by the prosecutor if the girl was awake after they had sex, Høiby said, “I don’t sleep with women who aren’t awake.”
Hoiby was found guilty of the 2018 rape charge and of a second incident involving a girl he met at a celebration in Oslo in March 2024.
He has been under scrutiny since he was repeatedly arrested in 2024 amid allegations of rape and on preliminary charges of bodily harm and criminal damage.
The royal palace said it was as much as the courts to handle the case and reach a choice.
The 29-year-old has no royal title or official duties.
— with files from The Associated Press and Global News’ Katie Scott
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