afp | In the rape trial against Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s son in Norway, Marius Borg Hoiby confessed to a life of excess with “a lot of sex, a lot of drugs and a lot of alcohol”. The reason for this is his “extremely high need for recognition,” said the 29-year-old in tears in court in Oslo on Wednesday. At the same time, he again rejected the rape allegations.
At the beginning of his arraignment, the defendant, who was wearing jeans and a crumpled shirt under a sweater, first took a piece of snus – an oral tobacco common in Scandinavia – out of his mouth. He then burst into tears and said he had been harassed by the media since he was three years old. At that time, his mother’s relationship with Crown Prince Haakon became known; the two married in 2001.
“I am known primarily as my mother’s son and for nothing else,” the defendant said in court. “That’s why I had an extremely high need for recognition. My whole life. And that translated into a lot of sex, a lot of drugs and a lot of alcohol.”
38 count indictment
The 29-year-old is accused of raping four women and physically and psychologically abusing several ex-girlfriends. The charge includes a total of 38 points and Hoiby faces up to 16 years in prison. At the start of the trial, the 29-year-old rejected the rape allegations and also pleaded not guilty to other serious charges.
Before the defendant’s statement, the questioning of one of his alleged victims continued. On Tuesday, the woman tearfully described the events after a party in 2018 at the royal Skaugum estate outside Oslo. She told the court that after a brief sexual contact with Hoiby, which she broke off, she fell asleep.
The police only contacted the woman years later after they discovered recordings and images on the defendant’s cell phone that, according to investigators, showed him raping her in her sleep. The woman herself has no memories of it; she speaks of a “big black hole”.
Rape denied
The photos and videos in question have not been shown to the media and the woman’s identity cannot be revealed. Looking at the footage, she told the court: “Look at my face: it’s clear that I’m completely unconscious. It even looks like I’m not breathing.” The woman also suspected that drugs had been administered to her without her knowledge.
The defendant, however, stated in court on Wednesday that he could not remember taking the recordings. “But we had consensual sexual intercourse while fully conscious,” he emphasized.
Hoiby is accused of raping a total of four women and physically and psychologically abusing several ex-girlfriends. According to the prosecutor’s opening statement on Tuesday, the alleged rapes all took place after initially consensual sexual intercourse – often after evenings of heavy drinking during which the women were unable to defend themselves. The defense, however, argued that Hoiby “perceived all actions as completely normal and consensual sexual relationships.”
Mette-Marit regrets the Epstein contact
Hoiby is Mette-Marit’s son from a previous relationship before she got together with Haakon. The couple also has two children together. The three children grew up together, but unlike his step-siblings, Hoiby never had a public role. Mette-Marit and Haakon are not present at the trial, which is scheduled to last seven weeks.
The Norwegian royal family is in distress as a result of the scandal. Mette-Marit, who suffers from an incurable lung disease, is also under pressure because her name appears in newly published files on the affair surrounding the late US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The publications suggest a certain level of familiarity between the princess and Epstein. Among other things, she asked him in an email whether it was “inappropriate for a mother to suggest a picture of two naked women carrying a surfboard as a screensaver for her 15-year-old son.”
Mette-Marit showed remorse over the weekend: she misjudged Epstein – “and I deeply regret having had the slightest contact with Epstein,” explained the 52-year-old. On Wednesday, the palace announced that the Crown Princess was indefinitely postponing a planned trip abroad.