The photographer who took pictures of Prince William’s wife Catherine topless is unlikely to face any sanction despite moves by Britain’s royals to have him or her hauled before the French courts, legal experts say.
William and the former Kate Middleton on Monday initiated criminal proceedings under French privacy law as well as seeking an injunction to prevent further distribution of the pictures by France’s Closer magazine.
The injunction request was due to be considered at an emergency hearing scheduled for 1600 GMT Monday.
No defendant was named in the criminal complaint but aides to the royal couple have said they want action taken against both Closer, which published the pictures on Friday, and the photographer who used a powerful telephoto lens to snap them poolside during a short break at a chateau in southern France earlier this month.
William was reported by the British media to have insisted on going after the photographer in a case which has evoked painful memories of paparazzi harassment of his late mother Diana.
The former Princess of Wales died in 1997 when the car she was travelling in crashed in a Paris tunnel while trying to escape chasing photographers.
The photographer who took the pictures which appeared in Closer on Friday, and have since been published in Ireland and Italy, has not been identified and Closer has refused to name him or her.
Legal experts say the magazine should be able to maintain that stance.
“The identity of the photographer raises the question of the secrecy of sources,” advocate Christophe Bigot told AFP.
“In principle, a judge cannot force Closer to disclose it as that would be a breach of legislation protecting journalistic sources.”
The law does provide for exceptions to be made but a judge would have to show “an overwhelming public interest” in it being bypassed, Bigot added.
That appears unlikely in this case as there is no precedent for it and breach of privacy is considered a relatively minor offence.
Under France’s privacy law, both taking and publishing pictures of someone without their permission is a crime theoretically punishable by a fine of up to 45,000 euros ($60,000) and a one-year prison sentence.
In practice, no one has ever been sent to prison and fines are frequently well below a maximum threshold which is comfortably affordable for Closer.
The magazine is likely to have received a considerable boost to its average circulation of 400,000 copies per week thanks to the pictures and will be more concerned about being ordered to publish any legal condemnation on its front page than the prospect of a fine.
Following Monday’s reception of the royal complaint, a prosecutor will carry out a preliminary examination of the case to establish if it is worth opening a full investigation which could take months to complete.
By then there is a good chance that the photographs, already widely available on the Internet, will have been seen by everyone on the planet who is interested in them.
The royals have yet to say if they will take legal action against Italian magazine Chi, which published the pictures on Monday.
Italy has similar strict privacy laws to France but the wheels of Italian justice move so slowly that it could take years for William and Kate to secure a judgement in their favour.
In Ireland, where the Daily Star published the pictures on Saturday, the couple’s only option is to make a complaint to the Irish Press Council under a voluntary press code to which the tabloid had signed up.
