“In September 2012, my wife and I thought that we could go to France for a few days in a secluded villa owned by a member of my family, and thus enjoy our privacy,” William said in a statement read to the court on his behalf by the couple’s lawyer, Jean Veil.
“We know France and the French and we know that they are, in principle, respectful of private life, including that of their guests. The clandestine way in which these photographs were taken was particularly shocking to us as it breached our privacy.”
The case relates to photos of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge printed in the glossy French magazine Closer and the regional daily paper La Provence in September 2012. The publication of the images caused a scandal in Britain and prompted the royal couple to take legal action in France.
William and Kate were holidaying in southern France at a chateau owned by Viscount David Linley, the son of Princess Margaret, the late sister of the Queen.
Ernesto Mauri, 70, chief executive of publishing group Mondadori – which produces Closer, faces one charge of using a document obtained by a breach of privacy, as does Marc Auburtin, 56, who was La Provence’s publishing director at the time. Laurence Pieau, 50, editor of Closer magazine in France, is charged with complicity.
Agency photographers Cyril Moreau, 32, and Dominique Jacovides, 59, and Valerie Suau, 53, who was a photographer for La Provence, stood in the dock together in the court in the western Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday as they faced charges of invasion of privacy and complicity. La Provence has denied that Suau took any topless images.
The court heard that cellular data placed Moreau and Jacovides in the areas surrounding the chateau between 4 and 6 September, when the topless images are believed to have been taken.
While the pair acknowledged they were looking for the royal couple, they said they did not know where they were staying. Both deny taking the photographs at the centre of the controversy, which are alleged to have been sold on to Closer.
Suau, who is said to have taken photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge wearing swimwear, which were printed in La Provence, told the court she did not intend to breach the royals’ privacy.
Paul-Albert Iweins, representing Closer magazine, said the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were hoping to claim €1.5m (£1.3m) in compensation.
He argued that the couple were the subject of much media attention – including the broadcast of their wedding – and that the photos did not constitute a breach of privacy and cast them in a positive light.
The royal couple are not expected to attend the trial in person. Prince William’s Kensington Palace office refused to comment when contacted by Agence France-Presse.
The case had been delayed for four months after the lawyer for the agency photographers was granted more time to prepare their defence.
Pieau defended her publication’s actions at the time of the initial scandal, saying the pictures were not in the “least shocking”.
The publication of the images prompted a fierce reaction at the time, with a statement issued by St James’s Palace stating they were “reminiscent of the worst excesses of the press and paparazzi during the life of Diana, Princess of Wales”.
French authorities sided with the couple by banning any further reproduction of the pictures before launching an inquiry into how they were obtained. But the images still appeared in several other European publications: in Italy’s Chi, which, like Closer, is owned by Mondadori, in Ireland’s Daily Star, and sister magazines in Sweden and Denmark.
The royal couple launched their own legal proceedings in 2012 and a court in Paris banned Closer, which is separate from the UK’s Closer magazine, from printing any further images.
Presiding judge Florence Lasserre-Jeannin will announce the verdict on 4 July at the Tribunal de Grande Instance de Nanterre.
/Guardian/
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