Oslo (AFP) - The son of Norway’s crown princess pleaded not guilty Tuesday to four counts of rape at the opening of a trial that has thrown the royal family into turmoil.

Marius Borg Hoiby, Crown Princess Mette-Marit’s 29-year-old son from a relationship prior to her 2001 marriage to Crown Prince Haakon, stood and muttered a response to four counts of rape between 2018 and 2024.

Clad in green trousers and a sweater, Hoiby remained expressionless as prosecutors read out the 38 charges against him, which could see him jailed for up to 16 years.

Hoiby pleaded guilty to several of the more minor counts, including assaults, a narcotics charge, traffic offences and violations of restraining orders.

He was arrested again on Sunday evening on suspicion of assault, making threats with a knife and violating a restraining order, and was remanded in custody for four weeks.

The prosecution presented details of the alleged rapes and assaults to the packed Oslo court, while Hoiby, his head bowed, fidgeted nervously.

The alleged rapes – including one while he was on holiday in 2023 with his royal stepfather in Norway’s Lofoten Islands – all took place after consensual sex, often following evenings of heavy drinking when the women were not in a state to defend themselves, the prosecution claimed.

“If Marius says he is not guilty … it’s simply because he perceived all of the acts as perfectly normal and consensual sexual relations,” the defence argued.

One of Hoiby’s alleged victims testified on Tuesday, with heavy media restrictions on her testimony, while Hoiby was scheduled to take the stand for the first time on Wednesday.

The trial comes as his mother faces heavy criticism, after unsealed US documents revealed her apparently close friendship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in prison in 2019.

Neither Crown Prince Haakon nor Mette-Marit will attend the trial.

- Treated like anyone else -

Hoiby “must not be treated more severely nor more leniently because of his family connections”, prosecutor Sturla Henriksbo told the court.

The defence meanwhile criticised the “negative media tsunami” that risked convicting Hoiby in advance.

“The judgment must be handed down in this courtroom, nowhere else,” lawyer Ellen Holager Andenaes told the court.

“It is really impossible for me to describe the impact that this has had on Marius’s life and mental health during the past 18 months,” she added.

Hoiby was first arrested on August 4, 2024 on suspicion of assaulting his girlfriend the night before.

Several days later, Hoiby admitted he had acted “under the influence of alcohol and cocaine after an argument”, having suffered from “mental troubles” and struggling “for a long time with substance abuse”.

Several ex-girlfriends then came forward and said he had abused them, both physically and mentally.

The police investigation uncovered a string of other suspected offences, including the rapes of four women while they were sleeping or passed out drunk, which he filmed or took pictures of.

The four rapes allegedly took place in 2018, 2023 and 2024, the last one after the police investigation began.

In January, police announced six more counts against him, including a drugs offence from 2020 after he confessed to transporting 3.5 kilos (nearly eight pounds) of marijuana.

- Kicks and punches -

The identities of Hoiby’s seven alleged victims cannot be disclosed, with the exception of his ex-girlfriend Nora Haukland, a model and influencer who has publicly accused him of physical abuse.

In 2022-2023, while the two were in a relationship, Hoiby repeatedly struck her in the face, kicked and punched her, grabbed her by the throat, threw her against a refrigerator and hurled insults at her, the prosecution said.

The scandal, which royal experts say is the worst in the monarchy’s history, has dealt a blow to its reputation, though it remains broadly popular thanks to King Harald and Queen Sonja – both 88 – who are respected as unifying figures.

A poll published on Tuesday by television channel TV2 suggested that more than 70 percent of Norwegians think the monarchy’s standing has been weakened in recent years by various scandals.

The opening of Tuesday’s trial coincided with a vote in Norway’s parliament on whether to maintain the monarchy, adopted by a wide majority.

Mette-Marit, 52, suffers from an incurable lung disease and will likely need a risky lung transplant in the future.

The verdict on Hoiby is expected several weeks after the trial ends on March 19.