A Paris court has awarded 100,000 euros (92,000 pounds) to Britain’s Prince William and his wife Catherine Middleton in damages after ruling that topless pictures of her published in a French magazine in 2012 were an “invasion of their privacy”.
Presiding judge Florence Lasserre-Jeannin said the images of Kate Middleton sunbathing taken with a long lens when she and William holidayed in Provence and printed in “Closer” magazine were an invasion of their privacy, reported BBC.
The royal couple was awarded 50,000 euros each in damages.
The judge also fined “Closer” editor and owner 45,000 euros – the maximum amount allowed but well short of 1.6 million euros sought by the lawyers of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
The judge instructed regional newspaper La Provence, which printed the images of Kate in her swimwear, to pay 3,000 euros in damages.
All six defendants, including the photographers, were convicted of charges relating to the publication of the photos.
The trial began in May with a statement by William, who termed the invasion of privacy was “all the more painful” given the experience of his mother (the late Princess Diana) with press photographers.
Diana died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997 while being chased by paparazzi.
