Kate’s naked fury on trial
TOPLESS photos of the Duchess of Cambridge published in France caused her and her husband Prince William huge distress, a court has heard.
Lawyers acting for Kate and William have demanded $2.1 million in compensation after the long-lens paparazzi shots were published in gossip magazine Closer and regional newspaper La Provence in September 2012.
Six defendants are standing trial in Paris over the photos, the publication of which triggered outrage in Britain.
All are charged with invasion of privacy and complicity, but deny causing any damage.
The royal pair were snapped while on a summer break at a chateau in the south of France owned by Viscount David Linley, son of Princess Margaret, the late sister of Queen Elizabeth.
One of the most intimate shots shows the Duchess of Cambridge topless and having suncream rubbed into her buttocks by William.
The couple’s French barrister, Jean Veil, told the first day of a criminal trial in the suburb of Nanterre that both William and Kate suffered “massively” because of the pictures.
Prince William was particularly angry at the humiliation heaped on his wife and has pushed for prosecutions.
“The clandestine way in which these photographs were taken was particularly shocking to us as it breached our privacy,” he said.
He added that the images were “all the more painful” given the harassment linked to his mother Princess Diana, who died in a car crash as she was pursued by paparazzi photographers in Paris 20 years ago this August.
But the six defendants claim the pictures were taken from a public place and were “not in the least bit shocking”.
Both photographers charged deny taking the photos, but Closer magazine has refused to identify who was responsible.
Diana’s 1997 death in a limo crash in a Paris tunnel was at first blamed on the chasing pack of photographers.
But an 18-month French judicial investigation found that it was caused by her drunken driver losing control at high speed.