Topless Kate Middleton Photos Led To Charges Filed Against Publisher, Responsible People Face Breach of Privacy Suit

Individuals responsible for publishing the topless Kate Middleton photos last year could soon face breach of privacy charges, according to News.au.

The people responsible for publishing the images, including Ernesto Mauri, chief executive of Mondadori Group, publisher of Closer Magazine, has been placed under formal investigation for “breach of privacy.” La Provence’s newspaper’s general director Marc Auburtin and his photographer Valerie Suau, two others individuals responsible for the published images, have also been placed under investigation, according to the report.

Responding to the charges, the newspaper said: “La Provence maintains that the photos it published (by Valerie Suau) … show Kate Middleton and her husband in bathing suits and are not topless on the terrace of the Château d’Autet … These photos are not indecent at all and do not invade the privacy of the prince and his wife.”

The photos, however, that was published in Closer were definitely indecent according to The Inquisitr. Images show Kate and Prince William on holiday at a French beach. The magazine claimed to have more than 200 photos of Middleton in various states of undress, including a number of pictures where she was sunbathing topless on the beach.

The royal family, and most of the U.K., was outraged when they learned that the topless images of Kate Middleton, the duchess, would be made public. Several international magazines followed suit in publishing the images, but all of them appeared first in Closer.

After the photos were published, St. James Palace filed a complaint against the magazine, which then led to a formal investigation into Closer and the lensman responsible for taking the photos.

Now that the investigation is official, French officials can now interrogate Mauri, Suau and Auburtin about the topless Kate Middleton photos. French judges will then decide whether or not to call a trial on the matter. Lack of evidence will lead to charges against people responsible for the images, dropped.

Kate Middleton and the royal family sued the magazine last year over the supposed breach of privacy. The Duchess won the case and Closer was ordered to turn over all of the topless Kate Middleton photos to the royal family, as part of the ruling in the case.

According to the judge’s decision: “These snapshots which showed the intimacy of a couple, partially naked on the terrace of a private home, surrounded by a park several hundred meters from a public road, and being able to legitimately assume that they are protected from passers-by, are by nature particularly intrusive. (They) were thus subjected to this brutal display the moment the cover appeared.”

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