Saturday, September 15, 2012

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge start legal action over topless pictures - Telegraph.co.uk

The Duke has always insisted he would not allow his wife to be hounded in the way his mother was, and earlier released a statement that likened the actions of Closer to “the worst excesses of the press and paparazzi during the life of Diana, Princess of Wales”.

Laurence Pieau, the editor of Closer, claimed to be taken aback by the “hullabaloo”, saying: “It’s as if we had killed Princess Diana a second time.” She also boasted the pictures would “go round the world”, and declared: “We won’t be the only ones to publish them.”

Last night a senior royal source told The Daily Telegraph that preventing the pictures appearing elsewhere was part of the objective of taking legal action. The Duke and Duchess were photographed at the Chateau D’Autet, owned by Viscount Linley, the Queen’s nephew, where they were staying during a short break ahead of their nine-day tour of the Far East.

Closer, which is owned by a firm run by the daughter of Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister, claimed the pictures were taken from a public road from which the house and its swimming pool were visible. France has some of the strictest privacy laws in the world, which may have been a consideration for the couple.

The Duke and Duchess made no attempt to conceal their fury in a statement released by St James’s Palace yesterday morning, saying they had “every expectation of privacy” in the remote Chateau, and that publication of the photographs was “unthinkable”. The statement added that the Duke and Duchess had been “hugely saddened to learn that a French publication and a photographer have invaded their privacy in such a grotesque and totally unjustifiable manner”.

Closer, which has no connection to the British magazine of the same name, published 11 topless pictures. It also alleged that the Duchess smoked a cigarette, which royal aides said was “highly unlikely” as she has never been a smoker.

The pictures are also available to subscribers to the magazine’s iPad edition, which is released worldwide, although the publisher could be made to put a block on its electronic version.

Diana, Princess of Wales was the last senior member of the Royal family to begin legal proceedings for breach of privacy, when she sued the owner of a gym for selling pictures taken using a concealed camera. The case was settled out of court, meaning that if the Duke and Duchess’s case goes before a judge, they will be setting a precedent.

Two years ago, the Duchess showed her determination to protect her privacy when she took legal action over pictures of her playing tennis. The picture agency agreed out of court to pay £5,000 damages plus costs, and apologised.

In 1999, the Countess of Wessex suffered similar embarrassment, when The Sun printed an 11-year-old picture of her topless. The newspaper apologised after Buckingham Palace accused it of “premeditated cruelty”.

No comments:

Post a Comment