The eldest son of Norway’s crown princess has appeared in court after being arrested on suspicion of rape.

Marius Borg Hoiby, 27, challenged a police request to put him in preventive detention while they investigate the claim.

Officers said he was arrested on Monday on suspicion of sex with “with someone who is unconscious or for other reasons unable to resist the act”.

Borg Hoiby’s lawyer, Oeyvind Bratlien, said his client is innocent. The hearing was held behind closed doors.

It is the second time in three months that Borg Hoiby has been arrested, as he was briefly detained by police on 4 August following a disturbance in the Norwegian capital, Oslo.

In that incident, he was named as a suspect of physical assault against a woman he had been in a relationship with.

Borg Hoiby later admitted causing the woman bodily harm while under the influence of cocaine and alcohol and damaging her apartment. He said he regretted the incident.

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Borg Hoiby is the son of Princess Mette-Marit from a previous relationship and the stepson of the heir to the Norwegian throne, Crown Prince Haakon.

However, he is outside the line of royal succession and has no title.

Crown Prince Haakon told Norwegian TV on Tuesday: “These are serious allegations Marius now faces, and we are of course thinking of all those affected.”