British royals start criminal proceedings over topless pics

PARIS - Agence France-Presse

Britain's Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, smiles to locals as she departs the Cultural village in Honiara Monday, Sept. 17, 2012. Britain's Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, and his wife Kate are on their third stop of a nine-day tour of Southeast Asia and the South Pacific on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II to commemorate her Diamond Jubilee. (AP Photo/Daniel Munoz, Pool)

Lawyers for Britain's Prince William and his wife Catherine lodged a criminal complaint Monday with French prosecutors over topless photos of Catherine published in a gossip magazine, officials said.

The prosecutor's office in the Paris suburb Nanterre said it received the complaint against persons unknown with which the pair aim to get compensation for the images of Catherine sunbathing semi-naked at a French chateau.

The royal couple have said they want damages for the alleged breach of French privacy law from both Closer magazine and from the photographer, whose identity the publication has not revealed.

The couple are also seeking an injunction to stop Closer magazine re-selling the images of Catherine in bikini bottoms. The injunction request was to be considered at an emergency hearing in a Nanterre court from 1600 GMT on Monday.
 
The legal action came as an Italian magazine on Monday splashed the pictures across a special edition with a front-page headline that read: "The queen is nude!" The Mondadori group, which is owned by Italy's former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, has defended running the pictures as a matter of editorial freedom.
 
The grainy photos also appeared on Saturday in an Irish tabloid. They were first published by Closer on Friday.