Kate’s topless photos: Royals go to court as pics are republished

As Duchess Catherine and Prince William continued their Diamond Jubilee tour of the South Pacific on Monday, the scandal over topless photos of the former Kate Middleton continued to unfold, with the pics getting additional publication even as the couple took legal action.

Lawyers for the royals filed a criminal complaint Monday against the photographer who took the shots, according to the UK Independent. If convicted, the still-anonymous paparazzo and the editor of France’s Closer magazine could each face a year in jail, plus a fine.

Later Monday, lawyers were heading to civil court to seek damages and an injunction barring additional publication of the images, CNN said.

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Meanwhile, the photos originally published by Closer have since popped up via Chi magazine in Italy and the Daily Star in Ireland (though not in Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom).

“The Duchess would be no different to any other celeb pics we would get in, for example Rihanna or Lady Gaga,” Daily Star editor Mike O’Kane told the BBC. “She’s not the future queen of Ireland so really the only place this is causing fury seems to be in the U.K.”

Alfonso Signorini, editor of Chi, called the shots a “non violation of privacy because they were taken from a public space ... the photos are absolutely within the confines of the Italian law.” He told the Telegraph that he hoped, with the pics, “Kate could demonstrate an element of modernity, to show an open mind.”

Chi — according to “Good Morning America,” the same mag that showed pictures of Princess Diana dying after that car crash in a Paris tunnel — gave the royals a demure 26 pages in which to show their open-mindedness.

Never mind that that “public space” the photographer used was, according to E! News, about a half-mile away from the remote home where the couple was staying, and that Kate specifically wasn’t showing her mind.

Ironically, on Sunday on Tuvanipupu Island in the Solomons, Kate and Wills got a topless greeting from a few of the locals.

How open-minded.

ALSO:

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Pippa Middleton and the gun: Her Parisian party host apologizes

Prince Harry: Photos seen ‘round the world now on U.K. newsstands

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