The stepson of Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon has been found guilty of two counts of rape and other crimes.
Marius Borg Høiby, 29, has been sentenced to four years in prison.
An Oslo court made the ruling on Monday.
Høiby was acquitted of two other counts of rape.
He pleaded not guilty to the most severe accusations against him, including rape, while admitting to some lesser ones, and can appeal against the verdict.
Høiby joined the royal family when his mother Mette-Marit married Haakon in 2001.
Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit. (Reuters: Leonhard Foeger)
Prosecutors had asked that Høiby should be sentenced to seven years and seven months of prison.
He watched the verdict via video link from prison but could not be seen or heard in the courtroom.
The seven-week trial detailed Høiby’s drug addiction and self-made videos of sexual encounters. More than 800 electronic messages were entered into evidence.
One alleged rape took place in the basement of the crown prince’s family home, the court heard.
“The court finds it is proven she was not able to resist the action,” Oslo District Court Judge Jon Sverdrup Efjestad said of the rape in the home basement, while reading the verdict.
Only one of the women accusing Høiby of rape was in court to hear the verdict.
She cried after the judge said Høiby was guilty of raping her and dabbed her eyes with a tissue her lawyer gave her.
Royals’ popularity suffers
The case, which coincided with Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s apology for maintaining contact with the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after he was convicted in 2008, has contributed to a decline in popularity for the royals.
Interest in the case was also boosted by the contrast between the picture-perfect family and the allegations heard in court, according to Ketil Raknes, an associate professor in political communication at the Kristiania University of Applied Sciences.
“It was … a perfect crisis for the royal family because they had two crises at the same time. And they had a lot of [criticism] for the way they handled the Epstein files,” he said.
A Norstat survey published in February during the trial indicated the number of Norwegians favourable to the monarchy had fallen to a record low 60 per cent, down from 70 per cent in January.
The survey also showed a rise to 27 per cent from 19 per cent in those wanting a different system of governance.
In May, the royal family recovered somewhat in popularity, with 64 per cent supporting the monarchy and 23 per cent wanting a different system of governance.
Høiby (left) joined the royal family when his mother Mette-Marit (right) married Crown Prince Haakon in 2001. (AFP: Lise Aserud/NTB)
Crown Princess’s illness shifts mood
Høiby’s sentence was delivered amid difficult personal circumstances for his mother, Mette-Marit, who is waiting for a lung transplant on Norway’s national transplant list.
Mette-Marit suffers from pulmonary fibrosis, a condition that makes it increasingly difficult to breathe, and her health has severely deteriorated.
Without a transplant, she has about a year left to live, her doctors have said.
Her illness had changed people’s perceptions ahead of the verdict, Mr Raknes said.
“The coverage is much more sober,”
he said.
“People are seeing: ‘OK, this is a family who’s really struggling and this is not the time for … playing … the moral card as high as we maybe have done earlier in this case.'”
Reuters
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