Norwegian crown princess's son found guilty of two counts of rape

Marius Borg Høiby, the 29-year-old son of Norway's Crown Princess Mette-Marit, has been found guilty of two counts of rape and given four years in prison.The three judges in courtroom 250 at Oslo District Court cleared him of two other counts of rape, but found him guilty of many of the other offences of which he had been accused.Høiby was not in court for the verdict, but joined the session via video link.Prosecutors had called for Høiby to be given seven years and seven months in prison. His defence lawyers had called for a lesser term of 18 months and can appeal against the verdict.Marius Borg Høiby's mother married into the royal family when he was four, and although he grew up within the family he is not himself a royal figure.Mette-Marit is very ill with a form of pulmonary fibrosis and has recently been placed on a lung transplant list. Her son's lawyers have repeatedly sought his release from prison so he could spend time with his mother because of her declining health. After the verdict, Høiby's defence lawyer Petar Sekulic again asked the court for his release.One of the three judges in the trial, Judge Jon Sverdrup Efjestad, began the session early on Monday with a summary of their conclusions, before going into a 128-page ruling explaining the verdict.