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Pippa Middleton Takes Action In High Court Against Photo Thief

By Jessica Dafoe
Published on: 06:53 PST, Sep 28, 2016

Kate Middleton’s younger sister, newly engaged Pippa Middleton, has become the latest victim of a personal account hack, which resulted in an unknown individual gaining access to her private photos. A 35-year-old man was arrested in Northamptonshire on Saturday by officers who were investigating claims that Pippa’s iCloud account had been hacked and photos compromised. The man was arrested on suspicion of a Computer Misuse Act offense and then released on bail “pending further inquiries,” as the Guardian relays.

The Duchess’ sister has since taken high court action against the unknown hacker. As the publication notes, the case has been listed as “Middleton & anr v The Person or Person Unknown.” Officials of the court did identify the claimant as Pippa Middleton but did not indicate what the case was exactly about. It was speculated to be regarding the stolen photos, however.

It’s been reported that over 3,000 images were stolen from Pippa’s iCloud. Among those were many that were taken of Kate Middleton and her children, Prince George and Princess Charlotte. The private photos were said to have been offered to a number of different media outlets, including the Sun and Daily Mail, via WhatsApp, an encrypted messaging service. The Sun shared that it had been offered the photos for £50,000 by someone using a pseudonym.

A high court judge has since ruled on the issue of the photographs that were stolen, stating that they can not be published. USA Today shares the details.

“A British judge on Wednesday banned the publication of stolen photographs of Pippa Middleton after allegations that 3,000 personal images were taken in a hacking attack on her iCloud account. High Court justice Philippa Whipple made the order after Middleton, sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, and her fiancé James Matthews went to court against the “person or persons unknown” who are responsible for the hack.”

Pippa Middleton had taken the mentioned legal action in the Queen’s bench division of the high court. Cases handled by this division usually involve claims relating to personal injury, negligence, and privacy. Middleton’s attorney shared that the incident caused her quite a lot of distress.

Since her engagement to James Matthews, Pippa has made her way into headlines regularly and not all for positive reasons, either. The tabloids were churning out rumors of a feud between Pippa and her sister regarding whether or not Kate would have a role in Pippa’s wedding at all. Also, the reports were focused on the Duchess’ worries about James’ family ties, mainly his brother Spencer, who is a British reality star. Luckily, there is now legal action being taken over the photos, or this could be one more topic that the tabloids would use to seemingly pit the beauties against one another.

There is some positive news about Pippa, however. The youngest of the Middleton girls is set to release her second book, Heartfelt, on September 29. The work is diet and fitness-focused, and a portion of proceeds will go toward the British Heart Foundation, which is an organization Pippa has been an advocate for over the years. Although her first publishing effort, Celebrate, met quite a bit of criticism, as many said the party planning tips within it were quite obvious and not at all helpful, the fitness and health enthusiast certainly has lots to share on those topics in her new book and has the svelte frame that certainly makes fans want to know her secrets and regimens.

She and James became engaged in late July after an on-and-off courtship of nearly a decade. There has yet to be any word as to when the wedding will be, although there has been much speculation about the exciting event.

[Featured Image by Chris Jackson/Getty Images]

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