Madonna KO’s British Tabloid

The ex-Mrs. Guy Richie won a judgement in London from The Mail On Sunday, claiming her privacy and copyright was breached when the tab ran purloined photos of her 2000 wedding in Scotland.

The judge deferred a decision on compensation until January, but Madge is seeking in excess of £5 million ($US7.5 million) in the case.

Madonna said the photos in question were stolen by an interior decorator from her Beverly Hills, Calif., home.

No wedding pictures had been published before the Mail did the deed Oct. 19, with a cover shot and two-page spread of 11 photos.

“She was ambushed, for the simple reason that if the Mail on Sunday had told her what they intended to do, the claimant would have sought and obtained an injunction,” Madonna lawyer Matthew Nicklin said. Madonna kept them in a photo album in her California home.

They were taken by photographer Jean-Baptiste Mondino and presented to Madonna as a gift, according to her attorney. An interior designer “surreptitiously gained access to the photo album and copied at least 26 photographs.”

Those images were then sold to the Mail on Sunday for about £5,000 (US$7,500) on Oct. 15.

Madonna and Richie were granted a preliminary divorce decree Nov. 21.