Marius Borg Høiby, the son of Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit, has been sentenced to four years in prison after being found guilty of two counts of rape by Oslo District Court.
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The 29-year-old was cleared of two other rape charges but convicted of several additional offences, including violence and abuse against former partners. Høiby denied all four rape allegations.
The verdict was delivered on Monday by a panel of three judges. Høiby did not attend court in person because of unspecified health reasons and instead joined proceedings by video link.
Court Delivers Mixed Verdict
Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of seven years and seven months, while defence lawyers argued for a term of 18 months. The defence team said it would consider an appeal.
Judge Jon Sverdrup Efjestad opened the hearing with a summary of the court’s findings before presenting a detailed 128-page ruling.
The court found Høiby guilty of raping two women. One case related to an incident on the Crown Prince’s Skaugum estate in 2018, while the second involved a woman in Oslo in 2024.
However, judges acquitted him of two other rape charges connected to separate incidents involving women he met in Oslo and in the Lofoten Islands.
Evidence and Victims
The case involved six women in total. One of the victims attended court to hear the verdict and was seen crying after the guilty finding.
Prosecutors argued that she had been asleep or otherwise unable to resist when the assault occurred following a party in Oslo in March 2024. The woman testified that she had been asleep and would never have consented to the act.
The court accepted that she had been incapable of resisting what took place. All four rape allegations in the case involved women who were either asleep or incapacitated.
Høiby was also convicted of abusing former girlfriend and influencer Nora Haukland, as well as causing serious bodily harm to another former partner. He was further found guilty of offences involving a sixth woman, known publicly as the “Frogner woman” after the Oslo district where she lived.
Compensation and Possible Appeal
The court ordered Høiby to pay a total of 640,000 Norwegian kroner in compensation to four women, including Haukland, the only complainant judges ruled could be identified publicly.
The sentence exceeded the punishment proposed by the defence, despite Høiby having admitted to other offences, including transporting 3.5kg of marijuana and committing traffic violations.
His lawyer, Petar Sekulic, said the defence had not yet spoken with Høiby following the ruling but indicated that an appeal remained a possibility. Defence lawyer Ellen Holager Andenæs said the team welcomed the acquittals while expressing concerns about other parts of the judgment.
Royal Family Under Scrutiny
Although Høiby is not a member of the royal family, the case has drawn significant public attention because he was raised alongside Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit after her marriage into the royal household.
The palace said it would not comment on the verdict. Attention has also focused on Mette-Marit’s health after she was placed on a lung transplant list due to pulmonary fibrosis.
Commentators said the case had damaged public perceptions of Norway’s royal family, although concern over the crown princess’s health has increasingly dominated public discussion.
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Adapted by ASEAN Now. Source 15 June 2026
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