WILLS SUES FOR £1.3M OVER KATE PICTURES
He demands £1.3million from French magazine that printed them
PRINCE William has said that the publication of topless photos of his wife Kate caused him particular distress because of the way his mother Princess Diana died.
His trauma was revealed at the trial of six defendants over the paparazzi pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing topless in France.
Lawyers acting for William and Kate have demanded £1.3million in compensation after the long-lens photographs were published in 2012, a court heard yesterday.
The request for punitive damages was made by their French barrister, Jean Veil, on the first day of the criminal trial in the Paris suburb of Nanterre.
In a written statement read to the court, Prince William branded the decision to publish topless photographs of his wife as being ‘particularly shocking’.
The defendants include: Laurence Pieau, the editor of French Closer magazine; Ernesto Mauri, chief executive of the Mondadori group, which owns the publication; Cyril Moreau and Dominique Jacovides, two Paris-based agency photographers suspected of having taken the topless photographs.
Mr Veil told the Correctional Court that both William and Kate had suffered ‘massively’ as a result of the long-lens pictures, taken while the couple were on holiday at a chateau in Provence owned by Viscount Linley, Princess Margaret’s son.
One particularly intimate photograph, showing William rubbing suncream into his wife’s skin, is said to have caused great upset. They were published in French Closer while the couple were visiting Malaysia on behalf of the Queen. Mr Veil said they deserved damages of 1.5million euros – £1.3million – to add to ‘significant fines’ against the guilty parties.
Prince William was known to be particularly angry at the humiliation heaped on his wife of just a year when the pictures were taken in September 2012 and has pushed for prosecutions from the start.
The prince’s declaration, read in French by the couple’s lawyer, said: ‘In September 2012, my wife and I thought that we could go to France for a few days in a secluded villa owned by a member of my family, and thus enjoy our privacy.
‘We know France and the French and we know that they are, in principle, respectful of private life, including that of their guests.
‘The clandestine way in which these photographs were taken was particularly shocking to us as it breached our privacy.’
He added that the images were ‘all the more painful’ given the harassment linked to Princess Diana, who died in a car crash as she was pursued by paparazzi photographers in Paris 20 years ago this August.
Neither the prince nor his wife, now a mother of two, were in court yesterday, but they are known to be following proceedings from the UK. Yesterday was the second birthday of their younger child, Princess Charlotte.
The long-lens images of Kate, taken as they sunbathed on a ter race at the chateau, covered the front and inside pages of France’s Closer magazine in September 2012 alongside an article about the royals entitled, ‘Oh my God!’
The lawyer said William and Kate also wanted £42,000 from a French local newspaper, La Provence, which published the pictures a week before the magazine without showing the duchess topless. Marc Auburtin, the paper’s publishing director at the time, and photographer Valerie Suau also face trial.
All the defendants are charged with invasion of privacy and complicity, but deny causing any damage. They say the pictures were taken from a public place and were ‘not in the least bit shocking’.
The photographers have denied taking the pictures, with Closer refusing to say who was responsible.
Lawyer Francois Blistene, who is representing photographers Moreau and Jacovides, said: ‘The investigation was botched. They were looking for scapegoats, they found these two.’
All the parties submitted evidence to the court yesterday followed by discussions in private.
Judges will now take the submissions away for consideration with a verdict handed down on a date yet to be fixed.
According to experts, this kind of procedure is fairly common in ‘sensitive cases’, where a case must be seen to be heard in court but much of the work is done
‘The humiliation heaped on his wife’
behind the scenes. Sources also say that although the couple are seeking a hefty figure in court, the reality is normally very different.
French privacy actions usually yield a few thousand pounds maximum – and can often be just a ‘symbolic’ euro or two – with the idea being that the injured party wins morally, and not financially.
A Kensington Palace spokesman said it could not comment on an ongoing court case or if any damages would be given to charity should they win.
Publication of the photographs four and a half years ago triggered a dramatic reaction in Britain, with media organisations – including the Daily Mail – deciding not to publish them.
In the meantime, the French authorities supported the Royal Family by banning any further reproduction of the pictures before launching an investigation into how they were obtained.
Despite this, the photos still appeared in a number of European publications including Italy’s Chi and Ireland’s Daily Star.