Court bans topless Kate pictures

Sep 18 2012

A French court has ordered the the country's Closer magazine to hand over all copies of topless photos of the Duchess of Cambridge and blocked further publication of the images.

Under the ruling, the gossip magazine cannot publish the images of an intimate moment in the south of France any further, including on its website and tablet application. The magazine published 14 photos of a partially clad Kate in its pages on Friday.

The pictures have also been published in Ireland and Italy but the ruling from the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Nanterre, Paris, only affects the French publisher.

The civil case was seeking 5,000 euro (£4,034) in damages and a ban on the French magazine - which is run by a different company from the British version - re-publishing the images.

Representing the royal couple, lawyer Aurelien Hamelle has also asked the court to fine Closer 10,000 euro (£8,070) a day for each day the injunction is not respected, and 100,000 (£80,720) if the photos are sold.

But lawyers representing Italian publishing group Mondadori, which owns France's Closer and is controlled by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, told the court that the photos are not theirs to sell.

Mondadori-owned Italian gossip magazine Chi has also published a 26-page spread with the topless pictures. The court ruling comes after the Irish Daily Star announced on Monday that it has suspended its editor, Michael O'Kane, pending an investigation into the newspaper's decision to use the pictures

Jointly owned by Richard Desmond's Northern and Shell and INM, the Irish Daily Star's decision to run them on Saturday infuriated the media mogul. Mr Desmond has said he wants it shut down, with insiders at his corporation warning "he says what he means, and means what he says".

Lawyers for William and Kate have also asked France's criminal prosecutors to consider charging the photographer who took the pictures.

Currently on a Diamond Jubilee tour of the Far East and South Pacific, the royal couple will on Tuesday travel to one of the smallest countries in the world, the island nation of Tuvalu.