Court to rule on Kate topless pics

Sep 17 2012

A French court says it will decide on Tuesday whether to order an injunction halting further publication of topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge.

The royal request was made after a popular French gossip magazine printed 14 pictures of the partially-clad Duchess in its pages last week.

The decision came after an hour of arguments by lawyers in Paris for the royal couple and Mondadori, the Italian publishing house that owns Closer, the French magazine.

An Italian gossip magazine also in the Mondadori stable published a 26-page spread of photos of Kate without her swimsuit top and an Irish tabloid published more Kate topless photos over the weekend.

The Duke and Duchess have also asked France's criminal prosecutors to consider charging the photographer who took the topless photographs.

Meanwhile, the editor of the Irish Daily Star was suspended from his role at the newspaper over publication of the photographs.

Publishers revealed the decision to stand down Michael O'Kane while an internal investigation is carried out into the editorial decision to re-run the images.

The newspaper, co-owned by media baron Richard Desmond's Northern and Shell group and the Irish-based Independent News and Media, has been under threat of closure since publishing the pictures.

In a statement, the company behind the Dublin operation said: "Independent Star Limited has suspended editor Michael O'Kane with immediate effect, pending an investigation into the circumstances that led to the Irish Daily Star re-publishing pages from the French magazine 'Closer', which contained images of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

"Independent Star Limited has no further comment pending conclusion of the joint investigation by the newspaper's shareholders."