Marius Borg Høiby, the 29-year-old son of Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit, has been convicted on two counts of rape and sentenced to four years in prison.
The ruling was delivered by a panel of three judges at Oslo District Court, who acquitted him of two additional rape charges but found him guilty of several other offenses.
Høiby was absent from the courtroom during the verdict due to unspecified health issues but participated via video link.
Prosecutors had sought a sentence of seven years and seven months, while his defense team argued for a reduced term of 18 months.
They have announced plans to appeal the decision.
Although Høiby does not hold a royal title, the trial has cast a shadow over the royal family.
His mother, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, married Crown Prince Haakon when Høiby was just four years old.
The palace has opted not to comment on the verdict.
Mette-Marit is currently battling a serious illness related to pulmonary fibrosis and has recently been added to a lung transplant list.
Høiby’s attorneys have repeatedly requested his release from prison to allow him to spend time with his ailing mother.
Following the verdict, defense attorney Petar Sekulic requested Høiby’s release again.
Although Oslo District Court had previously granted this request, the court of appeal later reversed it.
Judge Jon Sverdrup Efjestad opened Monday’s session with a summary of the judges’ findings before presenting a comprehensive 128-page ruling detailing the verdict.
Høiby had denied all four rape allegations but was found guilty of assaulting two women: one at the Crown Prince’s estate in Skaugum in 2018 and another in Oslo in 2024.
He was also convicted of abusing his former girlfriend, Norwegian influencer Nora Haukland, and inflicting serious bodily harm on another partner, leading to his arrest in the upscale Frogner neighborhood of Oslo in August 2024.
However, he was cleared of two additional rape charges involving women he met at a hotel in Oslo in November 2024 and another during a holiday in the Lofoten Islands in 2023.
Sekulic stated that an appeal is likely given the nature of the case.
His colleague, Ellen Holager Andenæs, expressed satisfaction with the acquittals but voiced concerns regarding other aspects of the ruling.
The attorneys later met with Høiby at Ila prison and detention center near Oslo.
The case involved six women, but only one was present in court for the verdict.
She was seen crying as Høiby was found guilty of raping her after a party in Oslo in March 2024, during which she was either incapacitated or asleep.
The prosecution argued that she would never have consented had she been awake.
The court acknowledged that the victim was unable to resist during the incident. All four rape charges involved women who were either asleep or incapacitated at the time.
The judges also confirmed that the victim in the 2018 case had been asleep and unable to resist, only discovering last year that Høiby had filmed the incident.
Høiby was also found guilty of various offenses, including mistreatment and reckless conduct towards the sixth woman involved in the case, referred to as the Frogner woman due to her residence in that Oslo neighborhood.
The court mandated that he pay a total of 640,000 kroner (£50,000; €57,000) in damages to four of the women, including Nora Haukland, the only individual judges permitted to be named in this matter.
Høiby’s defense team now faces the decision of whether to contest the four-year prison sentence, which exceeds the 18 months they had proposed, particularly given the lesser charges he admitted to, such as transporting 3.5 kg of marijuana and various traffic violations.
In an email to the BBC, the palace stated, “The issue has been adjudicated by the courts, and we will not comment on the verdict.”
They have previously indicated that there will be no additional statements regarding Mette-Marit’s deteriorating health until she undergoes a lung transplant.
”There is no doubt that this case has influenced public perception of the royal family,” remarked Caroline Vagle, a royal correspondent for Se og Hør magazine.
This situation was further complicated by disclosures just before the trial about Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s three-year association with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
However, Vagle believes that the current sentiment has shifted significantly: “Her health is now the primary concern—everything else is overshadowed by that.”
Peggy Simcic Brønn, an expert in reputation management and a professor emerita at BI Norwegian Business School, views the royal family as facing an institutional crisis.
”The Høiby situation represents both a tragedy and a crisis for any family,” she stated.
”Their approach seems to be to allow the individual to face justice, serve their time, and then work on repairing the family’s reputation and addressing the repercussions for the royal household.”
By: Magdalene Agyeiwaa Sarpong