Lawyers acting on behalf of Pippa Midddleton yesterday warned photographic agencies that they could take out an injunction to protect her from ‘harassment’by photographers.
Last week Daily Mail picture editor Paul Silva revealed the extent to which the Duchess of Cambridge’s sister is targeted by photographers when he told the Leveson Inquiry that he receives up to 400 pictures of her a day.
He said the Mail does not use the pictures because ‘there’s no reason to photograph her when she’s out and about doing her own thing”.
Silva said he believes the same policy applies at other national newspapers, adding: ‘Her just coming out of her door every day, there’s no reason to use that.”
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Demand for the pictures appears to be fuelled by magazines, foreign media and websites – although the Mail did report today that it ‘rarely uses such photographs”.
The letter sent out to photographic agencies worldwide described Middleton’s “serious distress and anxiety” and said: ‘It is extremely intimidating to our client to have to face a group of unknown men outside her home and office who pursue her both day and night.”
The letter sent out by Harbottle and Lewis quotes Section 1 of the Protection of Harrassment Act 1997.
In March 2009, singer Lily Allen used this act to stop photographers coming within 100 yards of her home or following her after an incident in which she was chased by a group of photographers and there was a collision with her car.
In November 2008 the agency Big Pictures Paparazzi agreed to pay actress Sienna Miller £37,000 in damages plus legal costs after being accused of subjecting her to a “campaign of harassment”.
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