Royals take action over 200 nude Kate Middleton pics
THE Duke and Duchess of Cambridge William and Kate will later today launch separate legal cases seeking prosecution of a photographer who took images of her topless and an injunction against further publishing of those images by media across Europe.
A spokeswoman for St James Palace confirmed the royal couple had extended their case from just prosecuting the French magazine Closer which published the photographs, to a criminal case against the photographer themselves.
The couple was photographed via long lens from more than a kilometre away while privately holidaying in the south of France, in an act they have described as a grotesque breach of privacy. Kate was snapped topless by the pool and putting sun tan lotion on the second-in-line to the thrones back.
“We can confirm that a criminal complaint is to be made to the French prosecution department”, a place spokeswoman said.
In bad news for the future of the Irish Daily Star, both its owners criticized it for publishing the Kate photos.
The Palace is yet to initiate action against the Irish newspaper.
British company Northern and Shell, which co-owns the tabloid with Ireland’s Independent News and Media, or INM, said it was “profoundly dismayed” the Dublin newspaper had run the pictures. Its chief, Richard Desmond, said he planned to pull out of the joint venture that runs the tabloid.
Independent News and Media chief executive Joe Webb offered his “deepest apologies,” and said the company would be “launching an internal inquiry to ensure there will never be a repeat of this breach of decency.” But Webb said in a statement he hopes to preserve the Irish Daily Star and its 70 employees.
The case against the photographer is in addition to civil proceedings against the Closer magazine and both are expected to be heard in public although the royal couple, currently touring the South Pacific, will be represented by barristers and will not have to appear. The French prosecutors then decide whether there is a case to be heard before it proceeds to the next stage.
As well as those two cases, the palace is seeking an injunction at a court hearing in the Paris suburb of Nanterre against further distribution of the images, said to number at least 200.
The move came as Marina Berlusconi, daughter of disgraced former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who Italian magazine Chi threatening to publish 26 pages of photographs of the royal couple, claimed her father’s magazines were “just doing their job”.
The French Closer and the Italian mag Chi is published by Mondadori.
Company chairwoman Mrs Berlusconi said: “Mondadori, of which I am chairwoman, is a publishing house that uses in the best way possible this freedom and this independence that shareholders have always recognised. On this occasion as in others, Mondadori has confined itself to doing its job,” she wrote.
In a statement Mondadori also stated the editors of both titles decided to publish the photos because their content is a clear expression of the news, they depict a true event, and they do not undermine the people photographed.
Chi is expected to publish 50 images today in Italy.
The Dublin-based Irish Daily Star also published the images in an inside spread but no action is yet being taken against them.
Meanwhile, William and Kate happily posed for photographs at a state banquet staged in their honour in the Solomon Islands on a tour representing the Queen in this her Diamond Jubilee year.
“As you asked so nicely, of course,” William said tongue-in-cheek to photographers who asked to take their photograph.
A royal source said the legal actions had given the couple some closure
Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, arrives with her husband Britain’s Prince William at the airport in Honiara. Picture: William West
The source said the couple was keeping its options open in terms of legal action against Chi and the Daily Star and any other European magazines threatening to publish the topless images.
“It’s limited by time and resource, but if there is a proportionate response we can find, we will do, but our focus remains on dealing with the paparazzo if we can identify him or her and the civil action we have already brought against Closer, the source was quoted by British media as saying.
It could be up to two years before the actual hearing into the couple’s case is fully heard but in the interim the couple want the courts to block further images being published. It may be mute as the images have already gone viral.
The possibility of the royal couple having to give evidence at some stage is remote as their legal counsel believed they had a very strong case.
“Our understanding is, such circumstances are very rare and we will consider that if it crosses our bridge, at the moment the case is open and shut, the source said.
It is a clear breach of privacy and that will be very easy to prove with statements from our legal counsel so we don’t anticipate that either of their royal highnesses will have to give evidence. No defence has been offered, it was shot from a considerable distance into private property and that is against French law.
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