Paparazzi Issued Strong Warning To Stop Following Prince George And Princess Charlotte

Paparazzi photographers have been issued a strong warning from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge - to stop following their children.

An open letter from Kensington Palace has this morning revealed how Prince George and Princess Charlotte have come under increased surveillance from unauthorised snappers in recent months.

It said that several distressing incidents had put the youngsters’ safety at serious risk.

One photographer had rented a tinted-window car in which he created a “hide” by hanging sheets inside.

Stocked with food and drinks, he then allegedly parked it in a discreet place by a children’s play area - where he remained for several hours hoping to snap images of the Prince.

He was rumbled by police - and found lying in the boot with his camera poised.

The letter, from the Palace’s communications secretary, said that long-range lenses had also been used to capture images of The Duchess playing with Prince George in private parks.

Photographers had also been monitoring his movements, taking pictures of the children of private individuals visiting The Duke and Duchess’s home and pursuing cars leaving family homes.

Some had also used other children to draw Prince George into view around playgrounds, and been found hiding on private property in fields and woodland locations around The Duke and Duchess’s home in Norfolk.

Others had obscured themselves in sand dunes on a rural beach to take photos of Prince George playing with his grandmother, while locations near the Middleton family home in Berkshire were placed under steady surveillance.

The letter said that the British media should be praised for respecting the family’s privacy - and that further photo opportunities to picture the heir and his little sister would take place in future.

But it added that there was still a large international market for photos of them, which were being taken by unscrupulous paparazzi photographers.

Prince George - who is just 2-years-old - was their “number one target,” the note said - and the incidents were becoming “more frequent and the tactics more alarming.”

“It is of course upsetting that such tactics – reminiscent as they are of past surveillance by groups intent on doing more than capturing images – are being deployed to profit from the image of a two-year old boy,” it said.

“In a heightened security environment such tactics are a risk to all involved. The worry is that it will not always be possible to quickly distinguish between someone taking photos and someone intending to do more immediate harm,” it added.

Kensington Palace said legal steps were being taken to safeguard the family.

But it hoped that the open letter would encourage public debate and see publishers realise the distress their buying of the pictures were causing to the children involved.

“The use of these photos is usually dressed up with fun, positive language about the ‘cute’, 'adorable’ photos and happy write ups about the family. We feel readers deserve to understand the tactics deployed to obtain these pictures,” it said.

“We hope a public discussion of these issues will help all publishers of unauthorised photos of children to understand the power they hold to starve this disturbing activity of funding,” it added.

(all pictures credited to REX)