Woman tells trial of Norway royal's son she suspects she was drugged

The first woman to give evidence in the trial of Marius Borg Høiby, son of Norway's crown princess, has told of her sense of "betrayal and shock" after she was shown videos by police allegedly of him sexually assaulting her years earlier.

The woman told the court behind closed doors on Tuesday she had no recollection of what happened after brief, consensual sex at an "after-party" at his parents' house outside Oslo. Giving evidence on Wednesday she said she suspected she had been drugged.

The defendant, 29, is due to take the stand later for the first time.

He denies four counts of rape but admits some of the 34 other charges against him. He has not been accused of drugging anyone.

He has admitted to transporting drugs and speeding.

Appearing in court for the first time on Tuesday, he was seen shaking, and he is understood have had hospital treatment overnight, rather than returning to custody after he was arrested by police for an alleged assault on Sunday.

His trial coincides with a tense moment for his mother, after she was found to have exchanged hundreds of messages with the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein over a three-year period.

The palace said on Wednesday that Crown Princess Mette-Marit had postponed a private trip "until further notice", without giving further details. However, the storm of criticism over the unguarded, warm tone of the exchanges has heaped pressure on the royal house, when Mette-Marit is also seeing her son on trial for rape. She has expressed regret and poor judgement over the correspondence.

She was a commoner when she married Crown Prince Haakon, and her son was already four years old. He is not a member of the royal family or a public figure but has grown up as part of the extended family. No member of his family will be attending the trial.

After his initial arrest in August 2024, Marius Borg Høiby spoke of years of mental health issues and of struggles with substance abuse.

Wednesday's first session in court took place behind closed doors, but a small number of journalists were allowed to follow proceedings from an adjoining room.

However, they had not been allowed on Tuesday to see the videos and images taken from Marius Borg Høiby's phone which police said showed the first witness being sexually assaulted while incapacitated at his parents' Skaugum estate in December 2018.

On Wednesday, the court was then shown videos of her reaction to the images during questioning by police years later.

Asked by the prosecution whether she had been awake or asleep, she told the court that she appeared to be "completely unconscious - it doesn't even look like I'm breathing". She said she suspected she had swallowed something without being aware of it.

Asked whether she thought she had been drugged, she replied: "That's what I think."

All four of the women alleged to have been raped were either asleep or otherwise incapacitated at the time of the alleged rapes, which all took place after consensual sex.

Heavy court restrictions have been imposed on the trial, with a ban on photos of the defendant or the women he is alleged to have raped inside or outside court.

Prosecutor Sturla Henriksbø said on Tuesday he would be treated no differently than any other Norwegian. But defence counsel Ellen Holager Andenæs said he had already been subjected to prejudicial treatment from the media.

It would be strange, she said, if someone facing such a "tsunami of negative publicity over such a long time" did not feel they were losing control of their life and destiny.

Speaking on Tuesday, the first witness said the situation was surreal and overwhelming, and that it was unfair she was being dragged into the criminal case. The alleged events took place in 2018 and it was not until after the defendant's arrest in 2024 that police found videos on his phone.

She told the court that they had had consensual sex for a few seconds before she put an end to it. Then she said there was a "big black hole" in her memory. Asked if she had fallen asleep afterwards, she was adamant that she had not.

Marius Borg Høiby's defence counsel told the court on Tuesday that he had pleaded not guilty to rape because he saw all the incidents as "completely normal and voluntary sexual relations".

She said the court would need to decide whether the four women had been unable to prevent what had happened, and if he should have understood that they were asleep or unable to resist.

The case will be decided by three judges - if they find him guilty, he could go to jail for at least 10 years.

Meanwhile, there are signs of disquiet among Norwegians from snap polls this week.

One survey by the Verdens Gang website suggested that its popularity was down to 60.9%. The same poll also suggested 44% of Norwegians believed Mette-Marit should not become queen.

The palace sees opinion polls as snapshots that change over time, and it will have been comforted by a vote by Norwegian MPs as the trial got under way.

Traditionally, they vote once in every parliament on a republican motion to abolish the monarchy and the motion came up by coincidence on Tuesday. The result was never in doubt - and only 26 of the 169 members of the Storting supported abolition.