Photos violated Kate’s privacy: court
Topless sunbathing shots of Duchess of Cambridge were published in gossip magazine
NANTERRE, France — A French court ruled Tuesday that photographers and gossip magazine executives violated the privacy of the 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 ($66,375 Cdn) for such an offence.
The Closer executives, along with two photographers for a celebrity photo agency, were collectively ordered to pay 50,000 euros ($73,750) in damages to Kate and the same amount to her husband, Prince William.
The timing of the ruling had particular resonance in Britain. Last week marked the 20th anniversary of the death of William’s mother, Princess Diana, who was killed in a Paris car accident that occurred while she was being pursued by paparazzi.
The royal couple did not attend the hearing. Their office at Kensington Palace said they were pleased the court ruled in their favour and now consider the matter closed.
Kate and William “wished to make the point strongly that this kind of unjustified intrusion should not happen,” the palace said in a statement.
The pictures of Kate 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. They filed a legal complaint after the photos were published in Closer and a French regional newspaper.
The Closer spread included a caption reading: “On holidays I forget everything, the London greyness, and even the swimsuit left in her Highness’s suitcase.”
Using lists of hotel customers and cellphone data, investigators found photographers Cyril Moreau and Dominique Jacovides were in the vicinity of the castle where Kate and William vacationed in September 2012. Surges in the paparazzi’s incomes were also recorded after the photos appeared in Closer.
Moreau and Jacovides, who work for Paris-based celebrity photo agency Bestimage, denied taking the most contentious pictures published in Closer. They each were fined 10,000 euros ($14,750), but the court suspended half their penalties.
Jean Veil, the lawyer for the royals, did not disclose how much in damages he had sought on behalf of his clients. Closer magazine lawyer Paul-Albert Iweins told reporters that the couple had requested damages worth 1.6 million euros ($2.4 million)
Iweins called the fines the court imposed “a bit exaggerated,” but said he was pleased the damages awarded were in line with similar French cases of privacy invasion.
French regional newspaper La Provence also published a photo of the Duchess of Cambridge wearing a full swimsuit on the same estate patio.
The prosecutor at the trial in May said that the Provence’s picture, unlike the ones in Closer, was neither “indecent” nor “vulgar,” but that it still shouldn’t have been published.
The court gave La Provence’s former publisher, Marc Auburtin, and photographer Valerie Suau, suspended fines and ordered them to pay collectively 3,000 euros ($4,425) in damages to Kate and William.