A photographer was last night said to be ‘considering his options’over whether to make a formal complaint to police after a friend of Pippa Middleton appeared to point a gun at him.
Middleton was pictured with three male friends in an Audi convertible in Paris yesterday when one of the men pointed what appeared to be a semi-automatic gun down his lens.
A report in The Sun said it was not known whether the gun was real but claimed Middleton could face a ‘grilling’from French police following a series of gun massacres across the country.
The paper has obtained several photos of the man pointing the gun at the photographer credited to Xposure Photos.
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A source told the paper: ‘If the evidence points to her involvement, she will be prosecuted. Anybody involved in the illegal use of a handgun in public is liable to arrest and interrogation.’
It reported that the French photographer was ‘considering his options’over making a formal police complaint.
According to reports, if the gun turns out to be real all those involved in the incident face up to seven years in prison and even if the weapon is fake they could be sentenced to two years.
Following her sister’s marriage to Prince William last year Middleton has become one of the most photographed women on the planet.
Last April the Press Complaints Commission issued a warning to newspaper editors over alleged “harassment and pursuit” of Kate Middleton’s family by journalists, after her mother Carole and sister Pippa were photographed out shopping in London.
In January this year, the Daily Mail’s long-serving picture editor Paul Silva told the Leveson Inquiry that the paper receives between 300 and 400 pictures of Middleton a day. He said that the Mail, in common with other UK national papers, does not publish pictures of Middleton conducting her private daily business.
Later in January lawyers acting on behalf of Pippa Midddleton warned photographic agencies that they could take out an injunction to protect her from ‘harassment’by photographers.
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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