Pippa Middleton Obtains High Court Injunction Over Stolen Photos

The High Court in London has barred publication of photographs allegedly stolen from Pippa Middleton’s iCloud account, after her lawyers told of the considerable distress that the hacking of approximately 3,000 images has caused her.

The Duchess of Cambridge’s sister undertook civil court action in the Queen’s bench division of the High Court against a “person or persons unknown” after her iCloud account was said to have been broken into. It comes after The Sun published allegations that they had been offered the stolen images, which reportedly included pictures of Middleton’s nephew and niece, Prince George and Princess Charlotte.

On Wednesday (September 28th), a high court judge extended an injunction to prevent publication of the photos and any other private information that may have been stolen.

Police arrested a 35 year old man on suspicion of an offence under the Computer Misuse Act, after the images were said to have been offered to The Sun and the Daily Mail via the encrypted messaging service Whatsapp, with the person using a pseudonym and asking for £50,000 within 48 hours.

More: Pippa Middleton admits she’s not made all the recipes in her new cookbook

Barrister Adam Wolanski, speaking on Middleton’s behalf, said she feared the hack had been “genuine” and that it had been a “flagrant and criminal” act.

Several high-profile figures, such as Rihanna and Jennifer Lawrence, have recently suffered similar breaches of their privacy by having their iCloud accounts hacked and images distributed.

In July this year, a man named Edward Majerczyk pleaded guilty over the so-called ‘celebgate’ case, for running an orchestrated phishing campaign to steal private images and videos from celebrities.

Pippa Middleton, 33, announced her engagement to hedge fund manager James Matthews in July this year, confirming that their wedding would take place in 2017.

More: Pippa Middleton announces engagement to James Matthews