WEBVTT
1
00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:12.240
Caloroga Shark Media. Hello and welcome to your Palace Intrigue.
2
00:00:12.279 --> 00:00:14.960
I am your host and Mark Francis. This is a
3
00:00:15.039 --> 00:00:19.879
special bulletin regarding the Norwegian case of Marius borg Hoebi.
4
00:00:20.359 --> 00:00:25.280
You can follow this case on Crown and Controversy Norway's
5
00:00:25.399 --> 00:00:28.480
Royal Rebels. Just search for Crown and Controversy Norway if
6
00:00:28.519 --> 00:00:31.079
you'd like to follow this case further. We thought we'd
7
00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:34.600
bring you this episode just as a tease and update
8
00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:39.520
for or you Palace Intrigue royal fans, So please be
9
00:00:39.560 --> 00:00:42.560
sure and check out Crown and Controversy Norway wherever you
10
00:00:42.600 --> 00:00:46.159
get you a podcast. Here's the story. At eight point
11
00:00:46.159 --> 00:00:48.399
thirty this morning, in court Room two point fifty of
12
00:00:48.439 --> 00:00:53.719
the Oslo District Court, Judge Jon spurred Efierstad took his
13
00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:56.600
seat behind the bench and began reading from a document
14
00:00:56.640 --> 00:01:00.280
that ran to one hundred and twenty eight pages. The
15
00:01:00.359 --> 00:01:03.280
room had been full since before seven thirty. Journalists had
16
00:01:03.359 --> 00:01:06.239
queued up outside the building in the early morning darkness
17
00:01:06.519 --> 00:01:10.239
waiting for the doors to open. Camera crews from across
18
00:01:10.280 --> 00:01:12.760
Europe had been set up outside the courthouse since the
19
00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:16.400
night before. Inside the gallery was packed. The one seat
20
00:01:16.439 --> 00:01:21.159
that was conspicuously absent was the defendant's own Marius Borghibi
21
00:01:21.400 --> 00:01:24.560
followed the proceedings by video link from Iller prison for
22
00:01:24.599 --> 00:01:27.400
health reasons. According to his lawyers, he could not be
23
00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:31.680
seen or heard in the court room. After months of preparation,
24
00:01:31.959 --> 00:01:35.439
six weeks of trial, seventy witnesses, eight hundred and thirty
25
00:01:35.480 --> 00:01:38.840
pages of electronic messages, and more than ten thousand pages
26
00:01:38.879 --> 00:01:42.719
of evidence, the verdict in the most significant criminal case
27
00:01:43.159 --> 00:01:47.200
in the modern history of the Norwegian royal family had arrived.
28
00:01:47.760 --> 00:01:51.400
The judge's opening words, translated from the Norwegian, were these,
29
00:01:52.400 --> 00:01:56.560
the verdict is unanimous. Marius Borghoebi was found guilty of
30
00:01:56.599 --> 00:02:00.319
thirty four of the thirty nine charges considered by the court.
31
00:02:00.439 --> 00:02:04.200
He was sentenced to four years in prison. The most
32
00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:07.079
serious charges, the rape counts, produced a split result. He
33
00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:10.199
faced four counts of rape in total. The court convicted
34
00:02:10.280 --> 00:02:13.479
him on two and acquitted him on two. Both convictions
35
00:02:13.479 --> 00:02:17.080
involved women who were sleeping were so heavily incapacitated at
36
00:02:17.080 --> 00:02:19.719
the time that they were unable to resist what happened
37
00:02:19.759 --> 00:02:23.039
to them. The first conviction related to an incident in
38
00:02:23.039 --> 00:02:26.520
the basement of Skalcom, the royal family's residence outside Oslo.
39
00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:30.159
In December twenty eighteen, the court heard that video evidence
40
00:02:30.159 --> 00:02:33.639
had been presented in the case. Judge Efustad, reading from
41
00:02:33.639 --> 00:02:36.199
the verdict, described the footage in terms that left no
42
00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:39.960
ambiguity about what it showed. She had closed eyes, she
43
00:02:40.039 --> 00:02:42.199
lay in the same position over time. There were no
44
00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:45.719
sounds or movements indicating she was awake. Her own reaction
45
00:02:45.800 --> 00:02:48.800
when she was shown the recordings in the interrogation when
46
00:02:48.840 --> 00:02:51.439
she discovered what had been done to her while she slept, was,
47
00:02:51.599 --> 00:02:54.199
the judge said, consistent with a woman who had no
48
00:02:54.319 --> 00:02:58.520
awareness of what had happened. The second rape conviction related
49
00:02:58.520 --> 00:03:01.159
to a woman at an after in Oslo in the
50
00:03:01.159 --> 00:03:04.520
spring of twenty twenty four. The circumstances were similar. He
51
00:03:04.599 --> 00:03:07.759
was acquitted on the rape charge concerning a woman in
52
00:03:08.039 --> 00:03:10.159
Lofeton in the autumn of twenty twenty three and a
53
00:03:10.199 --> 00:03:13.840
woman at a hotel in Oslo November of twenty twenty four.
54
00:03:14.319 --> 00:03:16.639
The acquittal on the hotel charge did not mean the
55
00:03:16.680 --> 00:03:20.800
woman was disbelieved entirely. Even on that count, Hoyby was
56
00:03:20.840 --> 00:03:24.680
convicted of sexually offensive behavior for having filmed her without
57
00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:28.680
her knowledge or consent. Beyond the rape convictions. The court
58
00:03:28.680 --> 00:03:31.599
found him guilty of domestic violence in a close relationship
59
00:03:31.599 --> 00:03:34.840
against his former girlfriend, Nora Hauckland, the only victim who
60
00:03:34.840 --> 00:03:38.080
had been publicly named throughout the proceedings. The court found
61
00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:40.639
it proven that he had hit her repeatedly in the
62
00:03:40.719 --> 00:03:43.479
face with his fist, choked her, slammed a door in
63
00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:46.120
her face, and thrown objects at her. It found that
64
00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:48.759
he had tried to control her behavior, what she wore,
65
00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:51.759
how she acted, and that she had lived with a genuine,
66
00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:55.319
justified fear of further violence. He was also convicted of
67
00:03:55.400 --> 00:03:59.919
serious bodily harm against another former partner, physical violence threat,
68
00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:03.639
multiple counts of sexually offensive behavior for filming women without
69
00:04:03.639 --> 00:04:06.879
their consent, and three counts of violating restraining orders. He
70
00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:11.000
lost his driving license, three iPhones, a MacBook, his snapjet account,
71
00:04:11.000 --> 00:04:14.759
and his Facebook account were all confiscated by the court.
72
00:04:15.240 --> 00:04:17.720
He was ordered to pay compensation totaling six hundred and
73
00:04:17.800 --> 00:04:21.560
forty thousand Norwegian kroner roughly sixty one thousand US dollars
74
00:04:21.879 --> 00:04:25.360
to four of the women, Norah Haukland, the Skalkin woman,
75
00:04:25.439 --> 00:04:28.319
the woman from the after Party, and the woman referred
76
00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:30.839
to throughout the trial as the Frogner woman who was
77
00:04:30.839 --> 00:04:34.720
the target of his domestic violence. The prosecution had asked
78
00:04:34.720 --> 00:04:37.480
for seven years and seven months. The defense had argued
79
00:04:37.480 --> 00:04:39.920
for eighteen months on the charges he had admitted. With
80
00:04:40.000 --> 00:04:43.000
acquittal on the rape counts, The court landed four years,
81
00:04:43.240 --> 00:04:45.199
a sentence that reflects the gravity of the two rape
82
00:04:45.199 --> 00:04:47.480
convictions while accounting for the acquittals on the other two.
83
00:04:48.399 --> 00:04:51.160
His defense team, immediately after the verdict was read filed
84
00:04:51.160 --> 00:04:54.040
a request for Hoeby's release from pre trial custody. He
85
00:04:54.160 --> 00:04:56.800
is desperate to be with his mother, his lawyers said
86
00:04:56.839 --> 00:05:00.439
outside the court. A custody hearing was convened. As of
87
00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:02.560
this recording, the result of that hearing has not been
88
00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:06.519
confirmed publicly. The reactions from the victims and their legal
89
00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:11.199
representatives emerged within the hour. Nora Halcland's lawyers, John Christian
90
00:05:11.279 --> 00:05:15.279
Elden and Heidi Razvang released a statement on her behalf.
91
00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:17.600
They said that Halcland was relieved that the court had
92
00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:21.160
fully accepted her account. They described the cases an enormous
93
00:05:21.160 --> 00:05:25.639
burden on everyone involved, with extraordinarily extensive evidence, and said
94
00:05:25.680 --> 00:05:27.639
she hoped the verdict was set a final full stop
95
00:05:27.639 --> 00:05:30.600
on the matter. They added the domestic violence in close
96
00:05:30.639 --> 00:05:33.519
relationships is a serious social problem that can be very
97
00:05:33.560 --> 00:05:36.560
difficult to prove, and that Halclan's conviction for abuse in
98
00:05:36.600 --> 00:05:41.079
close relationships was a relief for the woman. Elden said
99
00:05:41.079 --> 00:05:43.759
she had been unwillingly drawn into this case and had
100
00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:47.360
appeared in court to give evidence as the legal system required.
101
00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:50.120
He described it as an enormous burden and a serious
102
00:05:50.120 --> 00:05:53.199
betrayal of trust by Hoebi. He said the court appeared
103
00:05:53.199 --> 00:05:56.560
to have made a thorough and well reasoned assessment. He
104
00:05:56.800 --> 00:05:58.879
then said she hoped that the final word had now
105
00:05:58.920 --> 00:06:01.879
been spoken that Marius will receive the helping needs so
106
00:06:01.920 --> 00:06:05.279
that this does not happen to anyone else. For the
107
00:06:05.279 --> 00:06:07.879
woman acquitted on at the hotel, Elton said that although
108
00:06:08.000 --> 00:06:09.800
the high burden of proof had not been found to
109
00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:12.480
have been met by the court, this does not meaning
110
00:06:12.519 --> 00:06:15.040
she was not believed. He said they would review the
111
00:06:15.160 --> 00:06:18.040
judgment and that the case might not yet be finally settled.
112
00:06:18.639 --> 00:06:21.240
The Palace issued a single line the matter has been
113
00:06:21.240 --> 00:06:23.839
considered by the courts and the Royal House has no
114
00:06:23.920 --> 00:06:31.439
comment on the outcome. More in just a moment. The
115
00:06:31.439 --> 00:06:34.360
scale of what the Norwegian court system processed in order
116
00:06:34.399 --> 00:06:37.240
to reach. This verdict is worth pausing on because it
117
00:06:37.279 --> 00:06:39.800
is not something that becomes routinely simple. Because the trial
118
00:06:39.879 --> 00:06:43.959
lasted six weeks, over seventy witnesses appeared before the court,
119
00:06:44.120 --> 00:06:46.839
eight hundred and thirty pages of electronic messages were entered
120
00:06:46.839 --> 00:06:50.120
into evidence. The trial examined accusations of rape spanning a
121
00:06:50.120 --> 00:06:53.720
period between twenty eighteen and twenty twenty four. It examined
122
00:06:53.720 --> 00:06:57.240
a pattern of domestic violence running from mid twenty two
123
00:06:57.360 --> 00:07:00.399
through late twenty three, and examined footage that Weeby had
124
00:07:00.439 --> 00:07:03.480
recorded of women without their knowledge or consent. It examined
125
00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:06.160
hundreds of messages between him and a former partner that
126
00:07:06.199 --> 00:07:10.120
prosecutors argued painted a clear picture of control, intimidation, and
127
00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:14.720
escalating violence. What emerged from it all, as Norwegian journalist
128
00:07:14.720 --> 00:07:18.879
and commentator Martin rl Dahell described in Doug Bladette, was
129
00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:22.079
a portrait of a party culture on Oslo's West Side
130
00:07:22.120 --> 00:07:25.519
in which casual sexual encounters and escalating drug use went
131
00:07:25.560 --> 00:07:28.360
hand in hand, and in which a man with access
132
00:07:28.360 --> 00:07:31.759
to royal residences, royal adjacency, and the protections of extreme
133
00:07:31.839 --> 00:07:35.079
social privilege had used all of that to harm women.
134
00:07:35.120 --> 00:07:40.199
Reportedly over a period of years. Royal historian Ula Jorgen
135
00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:43.199
Schuln Hansen told The New York Times this morning that
136
00:07:43.199 --> 00:07:46.319
Hoeby had been treated neither better nor harsher than anyone
137
00:07:46.360 --> 00:07:49.680
else would have been in the justice system. He said,
138
00:07:49.759 --> 00:07:52.040
it is in the extreme cases the principles are put
139
00:07:52.079 --> 00:07:54.040
to the test, and that those principles had now been
140
00:07:54.079 --> 00:07:58.639
tested and held. Associate Professor Catherine Holter at the Norwegian
141
00:07:58.680 --> 00:08:02.160
Police University Colon offered a refinement of that assessment. She
142
00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:05.839
agreed that Hoebi had not received special treatment. She noted, however,
143
00:08:05.879 --> 00:08:09.120
that he had in one sense been treated like other celebrities,
144
00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:12.000
in that celebrity cases tend to run longer in court
145
00:08:12.000 --> 00:08:16.319
than cases that do not receive media attention. The distinction matters.
146
00:08:16.480 --> 00:08:19.439
Equal treatment under the law and equivalent experience of the
147
00:08:19.519 --> 00:08:23.079
justice system are not always the same thing. News website
148
00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:25.959
Netavism described today as a dramatic day for the kingdom.
149
00:08:26.240 --> 00:08:29.360
The Norwegian royal family has had difficult years before. It
150
00:08:29.399 --> 00:08:32.399
has survived scandals before, but it has never before had
151
00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:35.720
a member of its household, even an unofficial one, even
152
00:08:35.799 --> 00:08:38.159
a man. The palace has been at pains to describe
153
00:08:38.200 --> 00:08:41.320
as simply a Norwegian citizen convicted of rape in a
154
00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:45.600
Norwegian court. That the conviction happened at Skalcum, in the
155
00:08:45.600 --> 00:08:48.320
basement of the Crown Prince's own home in twenty eighteen
156
00:08:48.360 --> 00:08:51.440
while Marius was living on the royal estate adds a
157
00:08:51.519 --> 00:08:54.279
dimension to this verdict that goes beyond the legal findings.
158
00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:57.559
The Palace's insistence that Marius is not a member of
159
00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:01.279
the royal houses constitutionally accurate, but one of the rapes
160
00:09:01.320 --> 00:09:03.639
for which he was convicted happened in a room beneath
161
00:09:03.720 --> 00:09:07.679
the roof the royal house provided him. There are two
162
00:09:07.720 --> 00:09:10.200
things left unresolved that will determine how this story develops
163
00:09:10.240 --> 00:09:12.720
in the weeks ahead. The first is whether Hoybe or
164
00:09:12.759 --> 00:09:16.639
the prosecution or both will appeal the verdict. Both sides
165
00:09:16.679 --> 00:09:19.559
have two weeks from today to review the one hundred
166
00:09:19.600 --> 00:09:23.320
and twenty eight page judgment and decide. His defense team
167
00:09:23.399 --> 00:09:25.360
said outside the court this morning that they would sit
168
00:09:25.399 --> 00:09:28.799
down and read the judgment carefully in its entirety before deciding.
169
00:09:29.399 --> 00:09:32.120
The prosecution has also indicated it may appeal on the
170
00:09:32.240 --> 00:09:35.559
charges where acquittals were entered. That means the four year
171
00:09:35.600 --> 00:09:38.279
sentence handed down this morning may not be the final word.
172
00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:41.960
The second is Mathame Marie. She is on a lung
173
00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:45.320
transplant waiting list. She is at home at Scalcolm. A
174
00:09:45.399 --> 00:09:47.960
lung becomes available and there is a six hour window
175
00:09:47.960 --> 00:09:50.759
from harvest to surgery ground. Prince Argan has cleared his
176
00:09:50.759 --> 00:09:54.360
official diary. Princess Ingrid Alexandra has transferred her studies from
177
00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:57.279
Sydney to Oslo. Prince Severe Magnus has been told to
178
00:09:57.320 --> 00:10:00.799
remain within reach. On Tuesday of last week, as King
179
00:10:00.840 --> 00:10:03.799
Harold and Queen Sonya were traveling through northern Norway on
180
00:10:03.879 --> 00:10:06.600
an official visit, they drove past a hillside where someone
181
00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:10.960
had painted the words God Bedroom, Meta Marite, get well,
182
00:10:11.080 --> 00:10:14.840
Meta Marite in large letters facing the road. Queen Sonya
183
00:10:14.840 --> 00:10:17.000
told the press that it was touching King Harold, so
184
00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:20.480
they truly appreciated it. When a reporter asked how the
185
00:10:20.559 --> 00:10:23.000
King himself was holding up, he said simply, one day
186
00:10:23.000 --> 00:10:25.879
at a time. He is eighteen nine years old. His
187
00:10:25.960 --> 00:10:28.720
daughter in law is waiting for a transplant, his grandson
188
00:10:28.840 --> 00:10:31.360
was just convicted of rape in an Oslow court room.
189
00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:34.559
His wife's heart has required emergency attention twice in the
190
00:10:34.639 --> 00:10:37.480
last year. He is still carrying out official duties and
191
00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:39.960
trying in a way that only someone who has done
192
00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:43.080
the job for thirty five years fully understands to hold
193
00:10:43.080 --> 00:10:45.879
the institution together through the worst period it has faced
194
00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:50.200
in modern history. One day at a time, five words
195
00:10:50.200 --> 00:10:52.879
from an old king doing his best. That is the
196
00:10:52.919 --> 00:10:59.240
Norwegian monarchy today, damaged, strained, under pressure from multiple directions simultaneously,
197
00:10:59.279 --> 00:11:02.720
and still somehow going. And there you have it. Thanks
198
00:11:02.759 --> 00:11:07.639
for listening to this special Norwegian Royal bulletin on palace intrigue.
199
00:11:08.039 --> 00:11:10.759
For more of this story, please check out Crown and
200
00:11:10.799 --> 00:11:14.799
Controversy Norway wherever you get your podcasts, and mind Francis
201
00:11:14.840 --> 00:11:18.080
my thanks to John McDermott. This is palace intrigue in
202
00:11:18.440 --> 00:11:19.039
good terms.