Marius Borg Høiby Convicted of Rape and Abuse as Norwegian Court Rejects Custody Release

A Norwegian court convicted Marius Borg Høiby of rape, assault, and abuse on 15 June 2026, according to ABC News. The verdict follows a trial in which Høiby — the eldest son of Crown Princess Mette-Marit — faced 38 charges, as Reuters reported when proceedings began in February 2026.

Prosecutors had sought a sentence exceeding seven years, Reuters noted in March. What sentence the court imposed has not yet been confirmed in the verified sourcing available.

The conviction arrives days after a separate legal setback for Høiby. A Norwegian appeal court rejected his application for release from custody on grounds of his mother's serious illness, the BBC reported on 10 June. That ruling kept him detained while the verdict was being prepared, and the refusal to grant a compassionate release signals that Norwegian courts treated the case with the procedural rigour typically reserved for serious violent offences — where the public-interest presumption against pre-verdict release is strongest.

The breadth of the original charge sheet — 38 counts spanning rape and multiple counts of assault and abuse — is notable by any standard in the Norwegian system. Norwegian criminal procedure consolidates related charges into single indictments, so a 38-count filing indicates sustained alleged conduct across multiple incidents and, in all likelihood, more than one complainant. The prosecutor's seven-plus-year sentencing ask placed this squarely in the upper tier of Norwegian domestic-violence and sexual-violence sentencing ranges.

The royal dimension has shaped how the case has been handled publicly, if not legally. Mette-Marit is not Høiby's custodial parent in the legal sense — he was born before her marriage to Crown Prince Haakon — but she has maintained a close relationship with him, and his legal troubles have put the Norwegian royal house in an uncomfortable public position since his first arrest on separate domestic-violence allegations in August 2023. Norwegian law applies equally to those with royal connections, and there is no indication of any procedural deviation from standard practice here.

For the royal family and for Norway's constitutional monarchy more broadly, a final conviction on rape charges involving the Crown Princess's son has no precedent. The Norwegian palace has navigated the period since 2023 carefully, with Mette-Marit issuing statements acknowledging her son's difficulties without minimising them. Whether today's verdict prompts any further institutional response from the palace will become clear in the hours and days ahead.

The next procedural step is sentencing, if it has not already been handed down alongside the verdict. Any sentence above a threshold — typically where the prosecution's demand has been substantial — can be appealed to the Supreme Court of Norway, so this verdict, consequential as it is, may not be the final word.