Son of Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit faces second rape allegation after arrest

OSLO, Nov. 21 — Two days after the eldest son of Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit was arrested for another alleged sexual assault, a second rape is suspected, police said Wednesday.

Marius Borg Hoiby, born from an affair prior to her marriage to Mette-Marit’s heir Prince Haakon, was arrested on Monday evening on suspicion of rape.

A lawyer for the police force said that since the investigation revealed a second allegation, police have requested that the 27-year-old be kept in custody, according to media reports, and on Wednesday the judge ordered that he be kept in custody for a week.

Prince Haakon told public broadcaster NRK ahead of the detention order: “Marius faces serious charges that the police and the judiciary will deal with… I believe they will do a good job.”

Borg Hoiby’s lawyer, Oyvind Bratlien, said he would appeal the detention order but welcomed the judges’ decision not to accept the police’s request for two weeks’ detention.

“We find this promising,” he said in his written statement to NRK.

The second allegation “involved sexual intercourse without consent with a woman who was unable to resist the act,” police lawyer Andreas Kruszewski said on the sidelines of the hearing.

Investigators searched and seized items from Borg Hoiby’s home.

Police said the rape charge came after a woman with whom he was in a relationship late at night on August 4 was accused of causing bodily harm following a fight at his Oslo apartment.

Norwegian media reported that police found a knife stuck in one of the walls of the woman’s bedroom at the time.

Borg Hoiby was arrested again in September for violating a restraining order.

He was in the car with the alleged victim of the August incident when he was taken into custody Monday, according to police.

Borg Hoiby was raised by the royal couple along with his half-siblings Princess Ingrid Alexandra, 20, and Prince Sverre Magnus, 18.

However, unlike them, it does not have an official public role. —AFP