Photographer who took topless photos of Kate Middleton 'is English'

The photographer who took pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge sunbathing topless is British, it was claimed on Thursday.

He is said to be "an Englishman living in the south of France" who staked out the Royal couple at the behest of Closer magazine, which published the photographs to widespread condemnation.

French police will seek to identify the photographer as part of a criminal investigation into whether the images broke the country's strict privacy laws. Pascal Rostain, a French paparazzo, claimed that he had information pointing to the wanted man's identity.

"The irony of this whole thing is that the photographer who took these pictures is an Englishman living in the south of France.

"These photos were taken on the orders of Closer, who asked him to sit around for several days to take them," Rostain told Metro newspaper in Lyon.

"For his efforts he did not earn a lot. He could have sold them for euros 10,000 [pounds 8,000], but in fact he was just paid his wages for going to take them. And he didn't put them on the open market either, where he could have earned a lot more."

Rostain, one of France's best known long lens photographers, said blame for the pictures' publication lay with Closer.

"As a photographer, I take the pictures I want and let the publication decide whether to print them. What they choose to print is not the photographer's problem, but the editor's," he said.

A female photographer, Valerie Suau, has admitted taking pictures of the Duchess from a public road overlooking the private estate where the Royal couple were on holiday. She has insisted that the Duchess was wearing a bikini top in her photographs, and said she did not know who took the images of her topless.

Although the Duke and Duchess were granted an injunction earlier this week preventing further distribution of the pictures, magazines around the world are continuing to publish them.

The latest publication preparing to ignore the couple's wishes is SE og HOR (See & Hear), a celebrity magazine in Denmark. Its editor, Kim Henningsen, said the Danish public wanted to know "what these photos are all about".

A source at St James's Palace did not rule out further legal action, saying "all options are under consideration".

Within hours of Closer reaching news-stands in France, copies began appearing for sale on eBay and attracted bids of more than pounds 30. A spokesperson for the auction website said it was removing them from sale following complaints.

However, several copies appeared for sale on the site yesterday, with one seller boasting: "A copy of the now infamous Closer magazine printed in France with Kate and William available for postage here in the UK. Bound to be rare now it's not allowed to be copied."