William and Kate win injunction over topless photos

The Royals have won an injunction over paparazzi shots of the duchess that will fine Closer €10,000 a day if it republishes them...

16:10 18 September 2012

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have won an injunction preventing disgraced French magazine Closer publishing more photos of her sunbathing topless.

 

Should the publication decide to breach this, the court agreed to fine the magazine 10,000 euros (£8,070) a day for each day the injunction was not respected, and 100,000 euros (£80,720) if the photos are sold on.

 

The French judge sided with the Royals, addressing the court: "In what name did this magazine publish these shocking photos ... It was certainly not in the name of information. This has no place on the cover of a magazine or even in an article in a magazine."

 

Closer magazine (which is run by a different company than the UK version) was also ordered to William and Kate €5,000 (£4,034) in damages following the Tribunal de Grande Instance's decision in Nanterre, Paris. 

 

However, it isn't actually clear who owns the images in question.  The legal team representing Italian publishing group Mondadori, which owns France's Closer (and is managed by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi), told the court that the photos were not not theirs to sell on.

 

Mondadori's Italian gossip magazine arm Chi recently published a 26-page spread featuring the topless images which were taken from a very far distance from a road overlooking a private property that the Royals were using at the time. 

 

While British news establishments have stayed clear of the images, the Irish Daily Star also published them. Its editor, Michael O'Kane, has since been suspended. 

 

A separate court in Nanterre has also opened a criminal investigation to determine if William and Kate's privacy was breached. 

 

If a guilty verdict is reached, Closer magazine could be fined up to €45,000 (£36,000) and the editor could be jailed for up to a year.

 

The Royal couple is currently in the final parts of a diamond jubilee tour in south-east Asia and the South Pacific.