Royals Go To French Court About Topless Photos

Editor of Irish newspaper that also ran the photos suspended

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were said to be "profoundly shocked and troubled" by the topless photographs of the duchess taken while they were on holiday in France, a French court has heard.

It was, their lawyer said, a shocking breach of their "personal intimacy" that the photographs were taken of them in a private place and published on the front cover of a French magazine. And he reminded the court that the pictures of the young couple were taken almost 15 years to the day since the "cynical, morbid and useless" chase that led to the death of the duke's mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.

The legal clashes in France between lawyers for the royal couple and the magazine that published the photographs came as the fallout from the scandal resulted in the suspension of the editor of an Irish tabloid newspaper, which also printed the images.