Stepson of Norway's Crown Prince given four years' prison for rape

OSLO — The stepson of Norway's Crown Prince Haakon was found guilty on Monday of rape and domestic violence and sentenced to four years in prison after a seven-week trial that has further dented the royal family's once picture-perfect image.

Oslo District Court ruled that 29-year-old Marius Borg Hoiby, who joined the royal family when his mother Mette-Marit married Haakon in 2001, was guilty of two counts of rape including one in the basement of the crown prince's home.

He was acquitted of two other rape charges.

Hoiby, nicknamed "Little Marius" since being the blond, blue-eyed four-year-old attending the royal wedding, was found guilty of 34 of 40 charges, including domestic violence against a then-girlfriend and drug possession and supply.

The court heard evidence of Hoiby's drug addiction, self-made videos of sexual encounters, and hundreds of incriminating electronic messages with ex-partners.

Prosecutors, who had sought seven years and seven months in jail, said that the four women accusing him of rape, in both the proven and unproven cases, had each time been too unconscious or too incapacitated to resist him after attending parties.

"The court finds it is proven she was not able to resist the action," judge Jon Sverdrup Efjestad said of the rape at the crown prince's home, while reading the unanimous verdict by the three-judge court.

Hoiby had pleaded not guilty to the most serious accusations against him, while admitting to some lesser ones including transporting 3.5 kg (7.7 pounds) of marijuana, violating restraining orders and traffic violations.

Hoiby would appeal the verdict, his lawyer Petar Sekulic told dailies VG and Aftenposten. The prosecution said it would consider appealing after digesting the full 127-page verdict.

"This is a victory for our justice system," prosecutor Sturla Henriksboe told Reuters.

"No one can get away with serious criminal acts based on who they are or who they are related to."

Hoiby hit and choked girlfriend

The royal household, which has in the past expressed sympathy for all those affected by the case, declined to react. "The matter has been considered by the courts, and we have no comment on the outcome," a spokesperson said.

No other members of the royal family attended the trial.

Hoiby was found guilty of domestic violence against a then girlfriend between mid-2022 and autumn 2023. He repeatedly hit her in the face with his fist, choked her, slammed a door in her face and threw objects at her, the court heard.

Hoiby watched the verdict via video from prison due to medical reasons. He has been repeatedly denied permission to visit his mother, who is suffering with pulmonary fibrosis and needs a lung transplant.

Only one of the women accusing him of rape was in court for the verdict. She cried after the judge upheld her case.

Hoiby has neither royal title nor duties but his case has transfixed Norway due to his ties to the heir to the throne.

Like other low-key Scandinavian monarchies, the Norwegian royals have had an image of a loving and relatively low-profile family, sending their children to state schools and enjoying skiing and surfing alongside members of the public.

But Hoiby's trial, coinciding with Crown Princess Mette-Marit's apology for contacts with late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has hurt their popularity.

A Norstat survey in February during the trial showed a fall in the number of Norwegians favoring keeping the monarchy to a record low of 60%, though it rose to 64% in May.

The verdict comes at a tough time for Mette-Marit, with doctors saying she has about a year to live unless she can receive a lung transplant.

"But her situation may also take some of the sting out of the verdict itself, as the crown princess is receiving an outpouring of sympathy over her health," Norwegian historian Trond Noren Isaksen told Reuters.

John Christian Elden, a lawyer for one of the victims, told Reuters that Hoiby's sentence was in line with new rules that distinguish between rape involving intercourse or not.

The two counts of rape Hoiby was convicted of did not involve intercourse.

The prosecutor, Henriksboe, said the court had also taken into consideration recent practice of weighing whether there had been consensual sex immediately prior to the rapes, which had been the case. — Reuters