French celebrity magazine,
Closer has been ordered to pay £92,000 in damages to the
Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for publishing topless photos of
Kate Middleton.
The case dated back to September 2012 when
William and Kate were pictured relaxing on the terrace of a chateau belonging to the
Earl of Snowdon, William’s cousin and the late
Princess Margaret’s son, in the southern region of Provence.
According to reports, long-lense cameras caught Kate displaying her
breasts while only wearing a skimpy pair of bikini bottoms. One intimate
picture also published showed William rubbing suncream into his wife’s
skin.
It was also reported that the angry couple considered £1.4million
from French Closer magazine appropriate compensation for the upset and
embarrassment caused by the photographs being distributed around the
world.
They also want the equivalent of £42,000 from the local newspaper La
Provence, which first published pictures of the Duchess in her swimwear
five years ago today.
But after five years of legal proceedings, judges in Nanterre, the
western suburb of Paris, ordered the Closer magazine today to pay the
majority of the £92,000 damages while six the defendants were in the
dock.
Its editor, 51-year-old Laurence Piea, and Ernest Mauria, 71, the
director of the Mondadori group which publishes Closer, were fined
£42,000 (€45,000 euros) each. Both of whom could have been jailed for up
to a year, but retained their freedom.
The fine is said to be one of the highest ever in a privacy case in France
Although, none of the Royals attended the court sessions over the
years, but William earlier presented statements criticizing the
paparazzi for the offensive gesture.
In one written in May, he said the impact of the topless photographs
were ‘all the more painful’ given the harassment linked to the death of
his mother,
Diana,
Princess of Wales.
Agency photographers
Cyril Moreau, 32, and
Dominique Jacovides, 59, and
Valerie Suau, 53, of
La Provence, were accused of invading privacy and complicity
The sixth defendant was
Marc Auburtin, the 57-year-old publishing director of La Provence at the time the pictures were taken.
Today’s judgement, was handed down by presiding judge
Florence Lasserre-Jeannin