The eldest son of Norway’s Crown Princess Mette-Marit has been arrested on suspicion of rape, police said on Tuesday.
Marius Borg Høiby is the stepson of the heir to the Norwegian throne, Crown Prince Haakon, and the son of Mette-Marit from a previous relationship, he lives with the royal couple and their two children, Princess Ingrid Alexandra and Prince Sverre Magnus.
He has no royal title or official duties.
Borg Høiby was arrested late Monday in Oslo on a preliminary charge of having had “sexual intercourse with someone who is unconscious or for other reasons unable to resist the act,” police said.
Police did not say when the alleged rape occurred, but only that “the victim must have been unable to resist the act.”
Norwegian media said Borg Høiby denied the accusation.
The lawyer for the woman who was allegedly raped, Hege Salomon said “She is having a hard time.”
She told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that police, not the woman, had brought the case. The woman was not identified.
The royal palace had not yet commented, the news agency NTB said.
Police officers had briefly detained Borg Høiby on August 4 after which he faced preliminary charges of bodily harm and criminal damage and was later released.
Details were unclear, but police said there was “a relationship between the suspect and the victim.”
More preliminary charges have since been filed against Borg Høiby, including violating several restraining orders and driving without a valid driver’s license.
