Two French photographers who deny taking photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing topless must still pay fines, an appeal court ruled today.
Cyril Moreau and Dominique Jacovides, of the Bestimage agency in Paris, were accused of snapping Catherine Middleton and her husband, Prince William, on a private holiday in the South of France.
The lensmen have always insisted they are innocent – pointing to a complete lack of evidence in a case that saw the Royal couple win £92,000 in compensation .
This is far more than is usually awarded in such privacy cases in France, leading to an appeal by French Closer Magazine, which published the snaps in 2012.
Moreau and Jacovides appealed sentences handed down in September 2017, but on Wednesday the Versailles Appeal Court, west of Paris, uphold them all.
Prosecutor Marc Brisset-Foucault told the court: ‘There was an absolutely unacceptable breach, not only of the privacy and the private lives of these two individuals, but also of the dignity of a woman.’
Long-lens cameras caught Kate solely wearing a pair of bikini bottoms, with William at one stage rubbing sun cream into his wife’s skin.
At the time, the couple were relaxing at a Provence chateau owned by the Earl of Snowdon, the late Princess Margaret’s son.
The editor of Closer magazine , Laurence Piea, 52, and Ernest Mauria, the 72-year-old director of the Mondadori group which publishes it, were fined £42,000 each.
The photographers were also fined the equivalent of up to £8,500 each, after Prince William presented statements attacking the paparazzi.
He and Kate wanted £1.4 million in compensation, but following the Nanterre payout, a Kensington Palace spokesman said they considered the case closed.
Paul-Albert Iweins, for Closer, had argued that the fines were excessive for a privacy case, and that they had conveyed a ‘positive image’ of the Royals.
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