Norway crown princess's son to stay in custody before rape verdict, says court

A Norwegian appeal court has rejected a request by Marius Borg Høiby to be released from custody because of his mother's serious illness, ahead of a verdict in a rape trial.

The appeal court's ruling in Oslo overturns a lower court's decision on Monday ordering the release of the crown princess's 29-year-old son pending next Monday's verdict on 40 criminal charges. He denies the most serious allegations.

Princess Mette-Marit, 52, is suffering from pulmonary fibrosis, and her doctors last week placed her on a waiting list for a lung transplant, saying her condition had declined significantly in recent months.

Her son's lawyers argued that Høiby needed to be close to his mother.

Høiby himself is not a member of the royal family. He has been in custody since the start of February, when he was detained before his trial over new allegations of assault and violating a restraining order requiring him not to go near an ex-girlfriend.

The case against him began when he was first arrested at the woman's flat in the upmarket Frogner area of Oslo in August 2024.

Repeated attempts by his lawyers to secure his release failed until a district court said on Monday he should be freed from custody.

"Sitting inside when I know Mum is so sick is unbearable," Høiby had told the district court.

It ruled that while there was a marginal risk of the crown princess's son re-offending, he had been free of drugs in prison and it would be "disproportionately intrusive" to keep him in jail.

The court of appeal disagreed with that assessment on Wednesday, arguing that the risk of re-offending was "virtually unchanged" since its previous decision on 13 May.

There was an obvious risk that he would have further contact with the "Frogner woman", the court decided.

"We are very, very disappointed on behalf of our client. One can imagine how he feels," one of his two defence lawyers, Ellen Holager Andenæs, told Norwegian media.

Prosecutors are seeking a jail term of seven years and seven months for Høiby, who is accused of 40 criminal offences. He denies four counts of rape, but admits some of the lesser charges, including possessing drugs and traffic offences.

The rape charges all involve women who were either asleep or incapacitated after they had had consensual sex. One of the four counts involves intercourse while the other three include alleged sexual assault.

The three judges in the six-week trial are also considering charges of violence, threats and abusive behaviour within a relationship, all of which he denies.

The court case has cast a shadow over the Norwegian royal family, as have revelations that Crown Princess Mette-Marit had a three-year friendship with disgraced late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Although Høiby was born before Mette-Marit married the heir to the throne, Prince Haakon, he was brought up within the royal family despite not being a member of it.

The crown prince and princess visited Høiby in Oslo prison last Sunday, after it emerged that she had been placed on the waiting list for a lung transplant.

Their children, Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus, visited Høiby hours after their mother had gone into hospital last Thursday.

The 29-year-old was allowed out of jail on Monday to attend a meeting with his mother's doctor at the family's Skaugum estate outside Oslo.

She was diagnosed with a rare form of incurable pulmonary fibrosis in 2018. The illness causes breathing difficulties and creates scar tissue that stiffens the lungs, making it difficult to breathe and for oxygen to enter the bloodstream.

Her consultant Are Holm, a lung specialist at Oslo University Hospital, told reporters last week that her condition had significantly worsened in the past three months, adding the rule for those being placed on the transplant list was that a patient was believed to have only a year left to live.

King Harald, 89, and Queen Sonja, 88, have been largely shielded from the crises affecting the royal family.

During a royal visit in Norway on Tuesday, they were asked about the crown princess's health, and the queen said "the situation is serious".