Marius Borg Høiby, the 29-year-old son of Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit, was found guilty of two counts of rape and sentenced to four years in prison.

The decision was made by the three judges of room 250 of the Oslo District Court, who acquitted the young man of two other charges of rape.

Høiby was not present at the hearing where the verdict was read for unspecified health reasons, but participated in the session via video conference.

The prosecution had requested a sentence of seven years and seven months in prison for the young man. For their part, his defense lawyers had requested a sentence of 18 months and can still appeal the verdict.

Although Høiby is not a member of the royal family, the trial has cast a shadow over the crown. His mother married Crown Prince Haakon when he was four years old, and he grew up royal.

The conviction comes as Mette-Marit, who suffers from a severe form of pulmonary fibrosis, was recently put on the waiting list for a lung transplant.

Her son's lawyers have repeatedly requested his release so that he can spend time with his mother, whose health is deteriorating. Following the verdict, Høiby's defense lawyer, Petar Sekulic, again petitioned the court for his release.

One of the three judges in the trial, Judge Jon Sverdrup Efjestad, began the session, held this Monday, with a summary of his conclusions, before presenting a 128-page ruling explaining the verdict.

Høiby had denied all four charges of rape, but judges found him guilty of raping two women: one at the crown prince's estate in Skaugum (about 21 kilometers southwest of Oslo) in 2018 and another in the capital in 2024.

He was also found guilty of abusing his ex-girlfriend, Norwegian influencer Nora Haukland.

However, he was acquitted of two further charges of rape, one against a woman he met in an Oslo hotel in November 2024 and another against a woman he met during a holiday on the Lofoten Islands in 2023.

The case against Høiby involved six women, but only one of them was present in the courtroom to hear the verdict and she was seen crying when Høiby was found guilty of rape.

The prosecution stated that the woman was incapacitated or asleep when she was raped after a party in Oslo in March 2024, after having had consensual sexual relations.

Evidence of the rape was based on videos that Høiby had recorded at the time and, testifying in court in February, the woman claimed that she was asleep and would never have allowed it to happen.

The court agreed that the victim could not resist what happened.

All four counts of rape involved women who were asleep or incapacitated at the time of the rape.

“Institutional crisis”

Høiby was also found guilty of several offences, including abuse and reckless conduct towards a sixth woman from the exclusive Frogner residential area in Oslo, in whose flat he was arrested in August 2024.

The court ruled that he must pay a total of $68,300 in damages to four of the women, including Nora Haukland, the only woman whose name the judges allowed to be mentioned in the case.

Høiby's defense must now decide whether to appeal the sentence, which is longer than the 18 months they had suggested, due to the less serious charges that Høiby admitted to, including drug possession and traffic violations.

It is unknown whether the crown princes will comment on the verdict, but they have already made it clear that they will not comment further on Mette-Marit's delicate state of health until she undergoes a lung transplant.

“There is no doubt that this case has affected people's perception of the royal family,” says Caroline Vagle, royal correspondent for Se og Hør magazine.

This was compounded by revelations, on the eve of the trial, that the crown princess had maintained a three-year friendship with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

But Vagle believes the environment now is completely different: “Their health is the main concern now, and it overshadows everything else.”

Peggy Simcic Brønn, reputation and public relations specialist and professor emeritus at BI Norwegian Business School, believes that the royal family is in the middle of an institutional crisis.

“(The Høiby case) is a tragedy and a crisis for any family,” he said.

“The way they have been handling it is to let the young man be convicted, to serve his sentence, but to try to repair as a family the damage caused to his reputation and the impact on the royal house itself,” he says.