Royals awarded damages over topless photos
FRANCE: 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 yesterday fined two executives of French gossip magazine Closer - owner Ernesto Mauri and executive editor Laurence Pieau - the maximum of €45,000 (NZ$74,000) each for such an offence.
The executives, along with two photographers for a celebrity photo agency, were collectively ordered to pay €50,000 (NZ$82,000) in damages to the duchess and the same amount to her husband, Prince William.
The award was substantially below the figure the magazine’s lawyer said the royals had requested, but the timing of the court’s finding of privacy invasion has 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 while being pursued by paparazzi.
The royal couple’s office at Kensington Palace said they were pleased the court had ruled in their favour, and they now considered 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 the duchess were taken in September 2012 with telephoto lenses while the couple were on a patio at a private estate in France’s southern Provence region. Their publication in Closer and a French regional newspaper outraged the royal family.
Using lists of hotel customers and cellphone data, investigators found that photographers Cyril Moreau and Dominique Jacovides were in the vicinity of the castle. Surges in their 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 (NZ$16,500), but the court suspended half of their penalties.
Jean Veil, the lawyer for the royal couple, did not disclose how much in damages he had sought on their behalf. Closer‘ s lawyer PaulAlbert Iweins said they had requested damages worth €1.6 million.
Iweins called the fines the court imposed ‘‘a bit exaggerated,’' but said he was pleased that the damages awarded were in line with similar French cases of privacy invasion. - AP