Norwegian crown princess's son found guilty of rape

Marius Borg Høiby, the 29-year-old son of Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit, has been found guilty of two counts of rape and sentenced to four years in prison.

The three judges in courtroom 250 at Oslo District Court cleared him of two other counts of rape, but found him guilty of many of the other offences of which he had been accused.

Høiby was not in court for the verdict for unspecified health reasons, but joined the session via video link.

Prosecutors had called for Høiby to be given seven years and seven months in prison. His defence lawyers had called for a lesser term of 18 months and have said he intends to appeal.

Even though Marius Borg Høiby is not himself a royal figure, the trial has cast a shadow over the broader royal family. His mother married Crown Prince Haakon when he was four, and he grew up within the family. The palace has said it will not comment on Monday's verdict.

Mette-Marit is very ill with a form of pulmonary fibrosis and has recently been placed on a lung transplant list.

Her son's lawyers have repeatedly sought his release from prison so he could spend time with his mother because of her declining health.

After the verdict, Høiby's defence lawyer Petar Sekulic again asked the court for his release. Although Oslo district court initially granted his release last week, the decision was overturned by the court of appeal.

One of the three judges in the trial, Judge Jon Sverdrup Efjestad, began the session early on Monday with a summary of their conclusions, before going into a 128-page ruling explaining the verdict.

Høiby had denied all four counts of rape, but the judges convicted him of raping two women, including one on the Crown Prince's estate at Skaugum in 2018 and another involving a woman in Oslo in 2024.