OSLO, Feb 4 — Doubts emerged today over whether the son of Norway’s crown princess would testify as planned in his trial where he is facing charges of allegedly raping four women.
Marius Borg Hoiby, Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s 29-year-old son from a relationship prior to her 2001 marriage to Crown Prince Haakon, is due to testify today at 1pm (1200 GMT) in Oslo’s district court.
On the opening day of the trial yesterday, he appeared nervous and agitated, fidgeting with his hands and legs as he appeared in court to face 38 charges in all, including four alleged rapes and assaults against ex-girlfriends.
He has pleaded not guilty to the most serious offences.
“We’ll see,” one of his lawyers, Petar Sekulic, told reporters today when asked as he arrived at the courthouse whether his client was ready to take the stand.
An alleged rape victim who began giving testimony yesterday was to continue her account of events this morning.
In tears, the young woman described an after-party in 2018 at Hoiby’s home on his parents’ Skaugum estate outside Oslo.
She described a brief, consensual sexual encounter with Hoiby, telling the court she cut it off.
Police later contacted her when they discovered footage and images showing what they described as him raping her while she slept — events she had no recollection of.
The four alleged rapes — one of which supposedly occurred while Hoiby was on vacation with his royal stepfather in the Lofoten Islands in 2023 — 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 claimed yesterday.
The defence argued meanwhile that Hoiby “perceived all of the acts as perfectly normal and consensual sexual relations.”
The trial has thrown the Norwegian royal family into turmoil, at a time when Mette-Marit has also come under fire over recently unsealed US documents revealing her close friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Hoiby faces up to 16 years in prison if found guilty. — AFP
