The Oslo trial of Marius Borg Hoiby, son of Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit, for offences including alleged rapes has damaged the image of the Norwegian monarchy – Copyright POOL\/AFP\/File Ane Hem<\/p>\n
Pierre-Henry DESHAYES<\/p>\n
Prosecutors in Norway called Wednesday for the son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit, Marius Borg Hoiby, to serve seven years and seven months in prison for offences including the alleged rape of four women.<\/p>\n
Hoiby, the princess\u2019s 29-year-old son from a relationship before her 2001 marriage to Crown Prince Haakon, is on trial on 40 counts that carry a maximum sentence of 16 years in prison.<\/p>\n
\u201cRape can leave lasting scars and destroy lives,\u201d prosecutor Sturla Henriksbo argued on the second-to-last day of the trial that has made headlines worldwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be something the victim carries with them for their entire life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dressed in jeans and a blue polo shirt that revealed his arm tattoos, Hoiby, who does not formally belong to the royal household, did not react to the sentence called for by the prosecutor in the Oslo court.<\/p>\n
He has pleaded guilty to several relatively minor offences but denied the alleged rapes, which the prosecution said took place while the women were asleep or passed out.<\/p>\n
Central to the case has been whether or not the women were in a condition to consent to having sex.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Alcohol and drugs \u2013<\/p>\n
The scandal \u2014 which has seriously damaged the Norwegian monarchy\u2019s image \u2014 erupted on August 4, 2024, when police arrested Hoiby on suspicion of assaulting his girlfriend the night before.<\/p>\n
The investigation into that incident uncovered a slew of other suspected offences, as video footage and pictures on his phone and laptop depicted what police believed could be rapes.<\/p>\n
Until they were called in for questioning by police, the four alleged victims said they had been unaware of what had happened to them or that the actions could \u2014 according to the prosecution \u2014 be considered criminal.<\/p>\n
The alleged rapes all took place after nights of partying, during which Hoiby had consumed alcohol and drugs, and following consensual sex.<\/p>\n
One of them allegedly took place in the the basement of the residence of the crown prince couple, while they were home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In his closing arguments, Henriksbo painted a picture of the accused as a person \u201cwho thinks he can do whatever he wants\u201d and who cared little about checking with his sex partners \u201cwhen they were asleep and he wanted more\u201d.<\/p>\n
Throughout the trial \u2014 in which Hoiby testified he had repeated blackouts about the nights in question \u2014 the accused insisted that all of the sex had been consensual and that he was not in the habit of having sex with people who were asleep.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Not a monster\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
Hoiby was also accused of physically abusing ex-girlfriends.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor described him as a man \u201cprone to fits of anger, jealous, and, especially when under the influence, capable of losing control\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can lose it, \u2018blow a fuse\u2019, scream, throw phones, even knives, kick walls. And we even heard (testimony) about strangling, hitting and spitting,\u201d Henriksbo said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMarius Borg Hoiby\u00a0is not a monster. None of us are. We\u2019re all human beings, with good and bad sides. He should not be judged for who he is, but for what he\u2019s done,\u201d the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n
On Friday, the princess\u2019s son broke down in tears when he spoke of the \u201cmedia pressure\u201d that, in his view, has \u201cerased him as a person\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m no longer Marius, I\u2019m a monster. I\u2019ve become the hate target of all of Norway,\u201d he told the court.<\/p>\n
Hoiby is also accused of making threats, violating restraining orders, property damage, traffic offences and transporting 3.5 kilos (nearly eight pounds) of marijuana, without financial gain, according to him.<\/p>\n
The tall blond man with the beginnings of a goatee, wearing rings and earrings, spent much of the trial slouched over the defendant\u2019s table, drawing and chewing gum or using moist snuff.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After the prosecution\u2019s closing arguments, lawyers for the alleged victims were to address the court, following which Hoiby\u2019s defence lawyers were to present their final arguments on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The court is expected to hand down its verdict in several weeks\u2019 or possibly months\u2019 time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Oslo trial of Marius Borg Hoiby, son of Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit, for offences including alleged rapes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45245,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[85],"tags":[2014,25673,157,156,30,3571],"class_list":["post-45244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oslo","tag-crime","tag-hide","tag-norway","tag-oslo","tag-royals","tag-trial"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116267212104716483","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45244"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45244\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}