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Norway’s crown princess was indicted Tuesday on charges of child rape, opening a series of legal proceedings that have cast a shadow over the royal family’s image for weeks.
Marius Borg Hobie, 29, is the eldest child of Crown Princess Mette-Marit from a previous relationship and stepson of Crown Prince Haakon, heir to the throne. Høiby has no royal title or official duties.
In the year He has been under surveillance since his repeated arrests in 2024 on various misdemeanor charges.
Hubi appeared in Oslo District Court on Tuesday morning for a trial scheduled for March 19.
He faces 38 charges. They include rape, intimate partner abuse of a former spouse, assault on a significant other and transporting 3.5 kilograms of marijuana. Other charges include threats to kill and traffic violations.
The latest Epstein files include several emails with Sarah Ferguson, the former Duchess of York. The documents do not include anything illegal, but they do show she had extensive contact with a convicted sex offender.
Prosecutors said Hobby could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted. Seven alleged victims are expected to testify.
Reflecting the international interest in the trial, the judge appeared before the court in English and advised that some witnesses’ statements be heard behind closed doors, warning that photography or recording was prohibited in the trial.
Haibi’s defense team has “denied all allegations of sexual assault, as well as most of the allegations.”
Police arrested him on fresh charges of assault, threatening with a knife and breaching a restraining order, pending a hearing as of Sunday.
An Oslo court on Monday accepted their request for up to four weeks in prison on the grounds of possible re-offending. Defense lawyer Petar Sekulic said the arrest was the result of an “incident” involving another man on Sunday.
A shadow on the image of royalty
They declined to give details. But Huby said he will contest the jail term and his legal team is considering an appeal when he and another man can give statements to police.
The indictment centers on four alleged rapes between 2018 and November 2024. Alleged assaults and threats against a former partner between the summer of 2022 and the end of 2023. and two counts of aggravated assault against a subsequent partner, along with a restraining order violation.
Haibi’s defense team has “denied all allegations of sexual assault, as well as most of the allegations.”
Haakon said last week that he and Mette-Marit did not plan to attend the trial, and the royal family did not want to comment on the proceedings.
King Harald, 88, and members of the royal family are generally well-known in Norway, but Hobie’s affair remains a problem for the family’s image.
And Høiby’s trial opens just as a new set of documents from Epstein’s files was released Friday amid a new investigation into Mette-Marit’s past relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. In the year The crown princess, who said in 2019 that she regretted dating Epstein, contained hundreds of quotes, Norwegian media reported.