Marius Borg Hoiby, the 27-year-old son of Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit, has been arrested on suspicion of rape. He was taken into custody on Monday in Oslo on a preliminary charge of having sexual intercourse with someone unconscious or unable to resist the act, CNN reported. Police specified that he is accused of carrying out a “sexual act without intercourse” on a victim “said to have been unable to resist the act.” Authorities have not disclosed when the alleged rape took place.
The alleged victim, a woman in her 20s, didn’t know Marius Hoiby before meeting him on the day of the incident, according to her lawyer, Hege Salomon. She also wasn’t in a romantic relationship with Hoiby.
Hoiby pleaded not guilty to the charge, and was cooperating with the police and wanted to explain himself, his defence attorney Oyvind Bratlien told Norwegian state broadcaster NRK on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the alleged victim’s lawyer, Hege Salomon, said that the woman “is having a hard time” and said that police had brought the case, not her client.
“We do not have a comment on this case and direct all questions to police and attorney for Marius Borg Hoiby,” Simen Sund, Communications Advisor for the Royal Palace, told NBC News.
This isn’t Hoiby’s first run-in with the law as he was previously detained in August for bodily harm and criminal damage. He was arrested again in September for allegedly violating a restraining order.
In August, he issued a statement saying he had “struggled with substance abuse for a long time”. He said he would “resume” treatment for the problem and “take it very seriously”.
Notably, Hoiby was born in 1997 from a relationship prior to Mette-Marit’s 2001 marriage to Crown Prince Haakon, the heir apparent to the Norwegian throne. He and his step-siblings — Princess Ingrid Alexandra, 20 and Prince Sverre Magnus, 18 — were raised together by Mette-Marit and Haakon.