Court fines magazine staff over Kate’s topless photos

A FRENCH court has ruled that photographers and gossip magazine executives violated the privacy of Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge by taking and publishing photographs of the former Kate Middleton sunbathing topless.

The court in a Paris suburb fined two executives of French gossip magazine Closer – owner Ernesto Mauri and executive editor Laurence Pieau – each the maximum of 45,000 euros ($A67,000) for such an offence.

The Closer executives, along with two photographers for a celebrity photo agency, were collectively ordered to pay 50,000 euros ($A74,500) in damages to Kate and the same amount to her husband, Prince William.

The damages award was substantially below the figure that the magazine’s lawyer said the royals had requested.

The royal couple (pictured) did not attend the hearing. Their office at Kensington Palace said they were pleased the court ruled in their favour.

The pictures of the duchess were taken in September 2012 with telephoto lenses while she and her husband were on a patio at a private estate in France’s southern Provence region.

Their compensation payout will be donated to an undisclosed charity.