Charges dropped against paparazzi in Kidman case

AUSTRALIAN prosecutors dropped charges yesterday against a celebrity photographer accused of planting a listening device outside the mansion of actress Nicole Kidman.

Jamie Fawcett, 46, was charged in January 2005 with possessing and using a listening device after he was allegedly spotted planting the bug near a sidewalk outside Kidman’s lavish Sydney home.

But the New South Wales state prosecutor’s office withdrew all charges against Fawcett in Sydney’s Local Court yesterday. The reasons for the decision were not immediately clear.

“I’m naturally happy,” Fawcett told Australian Broadcasting Corporation outside the court. “I didn’t think that... there was any reason to bring the charges in the first place.”

Not long after he was charged, a Sydney court ordered Fawcett to provide a DNA sample to compare with samples allegedly found on the device.

But the photographer appealed to the New South Wales state Supreme Court, which ruled that he could not be forced to provide police with a DNA sample since there was no evidence he had broken any law.

In 2005, Kidman reached an out-of-court settlement with Fawcett and fellow Sydney-based photographer Ben McDonald after she was granted a temporary restraining order against the pair for allegedly stalking her and making her feel like a prisoner in her own home.