The son of Norwegian Crown Princess Mette-Marit was arrested for allegedly raping a woman in Oslo — his third arrest in a matter of months, according to police.
Marius Borg Høiby, 27, Mette-Marit’s eldest stepson born before her marriage to the heir apparent to the Norwegian throne, Prince Haakon, was taken into custody by authorities in Oslo on Monday evening.
He is preliminarily charged with having “sexual intercourse with someone who is unconscious or for other reasons unable to resist the act,” police said in a statement.
Police did not reveal when the alleged rape occurred, but said that “the victim must have been unable to resist the act.”
“She is having a hard time,” said the accuser’s lawyer, Hege Salomon, noting that it was police, not the woman, who brought the case.
Borg Høiby has denied the accusations, according to Norwegian reports.
Police said at the time of his arrest he was in a car with a girlfriend he was previously suspected of physically assaulting in a domestic violence incident in August.
A preliminary charge comes before a formal charge and allows authorities to detain suspects during an investigation.
Borg Høiby was previously detained on Aug. 4 after he was accused of causing bodily harm to a woman he was reportedly in a relationship with at her apartment, according to Agence France-Presse.
Police reportedly found a knife stabbed into one of the walls of the woman’s bedroom.
He has since been hit with several additional preliminary charges, including violating several restraining orders and driving without a valid driver’s license. The cases in total involve four women and one man, according to police.
Borg Høiby was with the same woman from the August incident when he was arrested on Monday, cops said.
Borg Høiby resides with the royal couple and his two stepsiblings, Princess Ingrid Alexandra, 20, and Prince Sverre Magnus,18.
The three were raised together by Mette-Marit and Haakon, although Borg Høiby has no official royal duties.
Norway’s future queen made headlines in 2001 when she married Haakon. The marriage was controversial as she was a single mother who had lived a freewheeling life with a companion who had been convicted on drug charges.
With Post wires
