Marius Borg Hoiby, Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s 29-year-old son from a relationship before her 2001 marriage to heir apparent Crown Prince Haakon, is on trial at a court in Oslo on 38 charges, including four rapes and assaults.
He has pleaded not guilty to the most serious offences. He faces up to 16 years in prison if convicted.
Yesterday, the first alleged victim claimed she had been drugged before being raped at an after-party in the basement of the royal Skaugum estate outside Oslo, when, according to Hoiby himself, his parents were upstairs.
“I suspect that I probably ingested something without my knowledge,” she told the court.
Asked if she thought she had been drugged, she replied: “That’s what I believe. 100%”.
Hoiby, in jeans and a blue sweater over a white T-shirt, and fidgeting with a silver bracelet and chewing gum, told the court on today that he had “never drugged anyone, as far as I know”.
The incident is said to have taken place during the night of Dec 19-20, 2018.
The alleged victim only fully realised what had happened years later when police contacted her after they discovered footage and images showing what they described as Hoiby raping her while she slept.
The four alleged rapes all took place after consensual sex, often following evenings of heavy drinking when the women were not in a state to defend themselves, the prosecution said this week.
The defence has argued that Hoiby “perceived all of the acts as perfectly normal and consensual sexual relations”.
Search history
During his testimony, Hoiby was confronted with his search history on pornographic websites, which included keywords suggesting a preference for acts involving sleeping women.
“I’ve watched a lot of really weird stuff,” he said, rejecting the implied predilection.
On Wednesday, Hoiby testified that he was “not in the habit of having sex with women who are not awake”.
He was first arrested on Aug 4, 2024 on suspicion of assaulting his partner the previous night.
The investigation, notably the review of photos and videos found on the defendant’s various phones and computers, led the police to also charge him with rapes of women who were in no condition to resist.
The scandal – the biggest in the history of the Norwegian monarchy, according to experts – has tarnished the image of the royal family and plunged it into turmoil.
Mette-Marit and Haakon do not plan to attend the seven-week trial, which has drawn massive media attention.
Torn between her roles as mother and future queen, Mette-Marit, 52, is fighting battles on several other fronts.
She has come under heavy fire over recently unsealed US documents revealing her close friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
She also suffers from an incurable lung disease and will likely need a lung transplant in the future.
Several polls published this week show that there are more Norwegians who now oppose her one day ascending the throne than there are those who support her.