Closer editor receives death threats over topless photographs of Catherine

French magazine Closer said yesterday its editor had received death threats for publishing pictures of Prince William's wife Catherine sunbathing topless.

"We have received more than 300 insulting e-mails of which several contain death threats," Closer said, adding that it had notified the police.

Fourteen of the most violent messages addressed to the editor, Laurence Pieau, had been handed to the police. One vowed to "never let her stay in peace".

After their debut in the French weekly, the photos of Britain's duchess of Cambridge have appeared in magazines in Denmark and Sweden, as well as Ireland's Daily Star and Italy's Chi, which like Closer is owned by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi's Mondari media group.

The pictures were taken when the royal couple were holidaying in southern France at a chateau owned by Viscount Linley, who is the son of Princess Margaret, the deceased sister of Britain's Queen Elizabeth.

After publication, Pieau defended them saying they were not in the "least shocking".