{"id":500445,"date":"2026-06-15T08:35:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T08:35:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/500445\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T08:35:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T08:35:08","slug":"norwegian-crown-princes-son-convicted-of-rape-and-jailed-for-4-years-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/500445\/","title":{"rendered":"Norwegian crown prince\u2019s son convicted of rape and jailed for 4 years \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The stepson \u200cof Norway\u2019s crown prince Haakon has been found guilty of two counts of rape as well as domestic violence and other crimes and is \u200csentenced to four years in prison, an Oslo court ruled on Monday.<\/p>\n

Marius Borg Hoiby (29) who joined the royal family when his mother Mette-Marit married \u200bHaakon in 2001, was acquitted on two other counts of rape.<\/p>\n

He had pleaded not guilty to the most severe accusations against him, including those of rape, while admitting to some lesser ones, and can appeal the verdict.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors had asked that Hoiby should be sentenced to seven years and \u200bseven months of prison.<\/p>\n

The seven-week trial gripped the Nordic country, detailing Hoiby\u2019s drug addiction, self-made videos of sexual encounters and more than 800 electronic messages \u2060entered into evidence. One alleged rape took place in the basement of the crown prince\u2019s family home, the court \u200cheard.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0A princess, her son and a royal scandal: Norway\u2019s trial of the centuryOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Interest in the case was boosted by the contrast between the picture-perfect royal family and Hoiby\u2019s alleged actions as heard in court, said Ketil Raknes, an \u2060associate professor in political communication at the Kristiania University \u200bof Applied Sciences.<\/p>\n

The case, alongside other crises, has contributed to \u200ba decline in the popularity of the royal family.<\/p>\n

It coincided with crown princess Mette-Marit\u2019s apology for \u201cpoor judgment\u201d in maintaining contact \u200cwith the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> \u200bafter he was convicted in 2008.<\/p>\n

A Norstat survey out on February 21st \u2013 during the trial \u2013 showed a fall \u2060in the number of Norwegians favouring keeping the monarchy \u2060to a record low \u200bof 60 per cent, from 70 per cent in January, and a rise to 27 per cent from 19 per cent in those wanting a different system of governance.<\/p>\n

In May, the royal family recovered somewhat in popularity, with 64 per cent polled by Norstat supporting the monarchy and 23 per cent wanting a different system of governance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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,\u201d Raknes said.<\/p>\n

The verdict was delivered amid difficult personal circumstances for Mette-Marit, \u200cHoiby\u2019s mother, who this \u2060month was placed on the national lung transplant list as her health has severely deteriorated.<\/p>\n

She suffers from pulmonary fibrosis, a condition that makes it increasingly difficult to breathe. Without a transplant, she has around a year \u200cleft to live, her doctors have said.<\/p>\n

That is somewhat changing people\u2019s perceptions in advance of the verdict, Raknes said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe coverage is much more sober,\u201d \u200bhe said. \u201cPeople are seeing: \u2018OK, this is a family who\u2019s really struggling and this is \u200bnot the time for … playing … the moral card as high as we maybe have done earlier in this case\u2019.\u201d \u2013 Reuters <\/p>\n

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The stepson \u200cof Norway\u2019s crown prince Haakon has been found guilty of two counts of rape as well…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500446,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,298,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-500445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-norway","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}