Irish paper publishes topless Kate photos

The Irish Daily Star newspaper has published pictures of Kate Middleton topless.

The Irish edition of the tabloid has printed the images of the Duchess of Cambridge across two pages of the paper.

They appear to be pictures taken off the pages of the French Closer magazine that first published them.

A palace spokesperson has said there can be no motivation for the action, other than greed.

It comes as Italian magazine Chi also threatens to publish the images.

Irish Daily Star editor Michael O'Kane said the pictures did not feature in the UK editions of his newspaper group and he defended their publication in the Irish Republic.

“The Duchess would be no different to any other celeb pics we would get in, for example Rihanna or Lady Gaga,” he said.

“She’s not the future queen of Ireland so really the only place this is causing fury seems to be in the UK, and they are very very tasteful pictures.”

He told the BBC that the images were the type of snaps that might be included among family holidays on continental Europe.