Kate and William have won a landmark legal case to block further publication of ‘highly intimate’ topless photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge.
The Royal couple's lawyers have successfully secured an injunction from a French court preventing the images being spread across the globe by the owners of Closer - the first to publish the naked pictures.
It is a sensational victory for the Duke and Duchess with the judge today hitting the French magazine with a series of strict punishments for the breach of privacy.
The ruling in Paris this morning means:
Closer France must not print any more copies of its controversial issue and take the topless pictures off its website
The photos cannot be published in any other magazines or papers in France
The photographs cannot be sold by them to anyone else in the world
Within 24 hours the offending pictures must be handed over to the Palace
Closer would get a 10,000 euro daily fine each time they sell them on or publish them
They will receive the same fine if they don't hand over all images by midday tomorrow
Legal fees of 2,000 euros handed to the Duke and Duchess
At the start of the unprecedented court case in Paris, barrister Aurelien Hammelle evoked memories of Princess Diana’s ordeal at the hands of paparazzi as he said a photographer had violated Kate’s privacy, adding she is a ‘young woman, not an object’.
Judges today agreed the magazine must 'give back' the equipment on which the digital photos were stored and banned the images from sale in France or abroad within 24 hours. Legal fees of 2,000 euros were also awarded to the Royal couple.
Closer magazine will now have to pay a 10,000 euros daily fine if photos of the Duchess of Cambridge are re-published or sold on.
The Duke and Duchess have also filed a criminal complaint under France’s privacy laws which could see Closer fined up 36,000 pounds and its editor serve up to a year in prison. And they have filed against ‘persons unknown’, referring to the photographer, who has not yet been identified.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are suing the French Closer magazine for printing semi-naked pictures of Kate last week.
It is the first time that a member of the Royal Family has sued a publication through the courts in France.
Yesterday their lawyer Mr Hammelle accused the magazine of intruding on a ‘highly intimate moment’ by taking the topless pictures of Kate while she was on a private holiday at a chateau in Provence.
The lawyer compared the ‘grotesque invasion’ to the relentless pursuit of Princess Diana by photographers.
The photographer responsible should be prosecuted, the Royals say.
Mr Hammelle said the pictures of the Duchess were taken ‘just six days after the 15th anniversary of the useless, cynical and morbid hunt which led to the death of William’s mother’.
The Royal couple is seeking 5,000 euro (£4,034) in damages and a ban on the French magazine - which is run by a different company from the British version - re-publishing the images.
Mr Hamelle has also asked the court to fine Closer 10,000 euro (£8,070) a day for each day the injunction is not respected, and 100,000 (£80,720) if the photos are sold.
But lawyers representing Italian publishing group Mondadori, which owns France's Closer and is controlled by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, told the court that the photos are not theirs to sell.
He said the Royal couple wanted all editions of the magazine removed from the shops, and to ban further distribution of the photos.
The pictures were taken ‘in a highly intimate moment during a scene of married life and have no place on the cover of a magazine’, he said.
William and Kate have indicated that they are prepared to present evidence themselves, once they return from their royal tour in the Far East.
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