NANTERRE: A photographer suspected of having taken topless photographs of the wife of Britain's Prince William published last September in French magazine Closer was charged in June, sources close to the case told AFP Thursday.

A second photographer is also under judicial inquiry and should be charged “very shortly”, the sources said.

The editor of the magazine, Laurence Pieau, was already charged earlier this month for having published the surreptitiously taken photographs of Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, the sources also said.

The topless pictures published on September 14 showed Kate sunbathing on the balcony of a private property in the south of France, where she was on holiday with William.

Kate gave birth to their first child, Prince George, on Monday.

The latest developments over the controversial photos come a few months after publishing house Mondadori France's legal representative Ernesto Mauri, another photographer and a senior editor of the newspaper La Provence were charged in the same case.

Mondadori France publishes Closer magazine, while La Provence had splashed photos of the duchess in a bathing costume on its front page a week before Closer, on September 7.

But La Provence management denied that its photographer had taken the topless pictures of Kate, saying the allegations were “unfair”.

After the publication of the pictures the British royals hit back suing for the paparazzi to be identified and further publication of the pictures to be stopped.

A judge near Paris ruled on September 18 that the topless pictures must not be published again, or sold. Outraged British tabloids called for the paparazzi to be identified, with The Sun carrying the headline “Find the Rat” on September 18.