Son of Norway’s crown princess arrested on suspicion of rape

The son of Norway’s crown princess, Mette-Marit, has been arrested on suspicion of rape, Norwegian police confirmed Tuesday.

Marius Borg Høiby, 27, is the eldest son of Mette-Marit and the stepson of the heir to the Norwegian throne, Prince Haakon. He was born prior to the princess’s 2001 marriage to the crown prince, and therefore does not hold a royal title or carry out official duties.

He was arrested Monday evening and police said in a statement that he is accused of carrying out a “sexual act without intercourse” on a victim “said to have been unable to resist the act.”

The alleged victim is a woman in her 20s who did not know Borg Høiby before she met him on the day of the alleged incident, her lawyer Hege Salomon told CNN. She was not in a relationship with him.

The BBC reports that he has denied the rape allegation but is facing a series of charges for offences allegedly committed against four other victims — three other women and a man.

In the past three months he has also been charged with one count of “abuse in close relationships,” violating a restraining order and driving without a valid driver’s licence, police said Tuesday in a press release.

In details provided by police, they say Borg Høiby was taken into custody on Aug. 4, after an incident at the Oslo apartment of a woman he was in a relationship with. Police say they found a knife stuck into one of the walls of the woman’s bedroom and he was accused of causing her bodily harm.

He apologized for the events leading up to his August arrest in a statement to NRK at the time, blaming it on “being intoxicated with alcohol and cocaine after an argument” and “several mental illnesses” for which he planned to “resume treatment.”

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The following month he was arrested for violating a restraining order.

Police say that during Monday’s arrest he was in a car with August’s alleged victim. They clarified that this latest charge is an alleged victim from a separate incident.

It’s the latest in a long string of scandal and alleged mistreatment of women for Borg Høiby; he has previously been charged with abuse against two ex-girlfriends, as well as with threatening the life of a man.

The Norwegian royal family is no stranger to controversy. Mette-Marit was deemed by many an inappropriate choice for future queen for her “wild past” that is reported to have included partying and drug-taking.

Before she married Prince Haakon, she went on television to apologize for having “lived a dissolute life” and condemned drugs.

“My youth rebellion was much stronger than many others. That resulted in me living quite a wild life,” she said at the time.

Borg Høiby’s father, Morten Borg, was convicted in the past of violence, drunk driving and cocaine possession, according to the Observer.