A Norwegian court on Monday found Marius Borg Hoiby, the eldest son of Norway’s crown princess and a stepson of the country’s heir, guilty of rape and domestic violence in a case that has drawn intense attention across Europe.
Mr. Hoiby, 29, was also convicted on charges including filming people without their consent and violent threats. Mr. Hoiby, who is not a member of Norway’s royal house, was sentenced to four years in prison, a judge said.
Mr. Hoiby had denied some of the accusations, though he pleaded guilty to other charges, including assault, harassment and malicious damage to property. He also admitted to transporting more than seven pounds of cannabis and violating a restraining order.
The seven-week trial garnered breathless coverage in Norway and attracted rare international attention to the country’s court system. Prosecutors were keen to show that Mr. Hoiby, a stepson of the future king, Crown Prince Haakon, would be tried as an ordinary citizen. The royal family stayed away from the court proceedings in a show of noninterference and issued public statements expressing sympathy for the victims.
While Mr. Hoiby is not a member of Norway’s royal house, his relation to the family has made him a public figure in Norway. He was 4 years old when his mother married into the royal family, and although he has no title or official duties, he was often pictured with its members at formal events.
Mr. Hoiby had been treated “neither better or harsher than anyone else would have been in the justice system,” said Ole-Jorgen Schulsrud-Hansen, a historian of Norway’s royal family. “It’s in the extreme cases that principles are put to the test. And now they have been.”
But the criminal trial, which began in February, came after years of accusations about Mr. Hoiby’s behavior, especially toward women, and tabloid scandals. It also unfolded during a time of crisis for the Norwegian royal family as his mother, Crown Princess Mette-Marit, came under pressure for her past ties to the American sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The princess, who was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis in 2018, was placed this month on a waiting list for a lung transplant.
Last week, an appeals court rejected Mr. Hoiby’s request for release to be with his mother as her illness worsened. Mr. Hoiby has remained in police custody since his arrest in February, days before his trial was to begin, in connection with allegations of assault in a separate case.
The current trial focused on accusations of rape between 2018 and 2024; accusations of violence and threats against a former partner between 2022 and 2023; and accusations of violence against a subsequent partner.
Parts of the trial took place behind closed doors, but testimony in open court focused on Mr. Hoiby’s volatile relationships and allegations of his violent responses.
The women who testified against him, including an ex-girlfriend, described multiple instances of physical and verbal violence. The ex-girlfriend said that some of those incidents took place in a royal residence where Mr. Hoiby lived with her, according to reports by Norway’s national broadcaster. He told the court, the broadcaster reported, that he had struggled with anger since he was a child and had sought help.
“Hoiby is not receiving special treatment,” said Katrine Holter, an associate professor at the Norwegian Police University College. “But one can probably say that he is being treated like other celebrities, in the sense that celebrity cases tend to run longer in court than cases that don’t receive media attention.”
