NANTERRE, FRANCE (AFP) - A photographer has been charged in a probe over topless photos of the wife of Britain's Prince William that appeared in a magazine, prosecutors said on Friday, the second to face scrutiny in the case.

The shots of Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, sunbathing topless on the balcony of a private property in the south of France created a furore when they were published in the magazine Closer on Sept 14. The photographer was charged with invasion of privacy on July 26 , prosecutors in Nanterre, a city near Paris, told AFP.

A first photographer was hit with the same charges in June. Both work for an agency based in the Paris region. The editor of the magazine, Ms Laurence Pieau, was charged earlier this month for having published the surreptitiously-taken shots of Kate.

The publication of the pictures caused a huge outcry in Britain, still haunted by memories of Princess Diana's death in a car that crashed as it was being chased by paparazzi. The British royals hit back immediately, demanding that the paparazzi be identified and asking that further publication of the pictures be stopped.

A judge near Paris ruled on Sept 18 that the topless pictures must not be published again, or sold.

Outraged British tabloids also called for the paparazzi to be identified, with The Sun carrying the headline "Find the Rat".