Newspaper exposé 'devastated' Mosley's life, court told

Motorsport boss Max Mosley’s life was devastated by a News of the World exposé of what it called a “sick Nazi orgy” with five prostitutes, the High Court heard today.

Calling for an unprecedented award of punitive exemplary damages in a breach of privacy case, counsel James Price QC said the effect on his client’s relationships with family, friends and business colleagues could only be imagined.

“This action has been brought because the claimant’s life was devastated by the exposure in the News of the World.”

He added: “The loss of human dignity, the loss of the claimant’s right to the esteem and respect of other people, the humiliation, the extent to which he is demeaned, are of the highest form and we say warrant the maximum compensation.”

He alleged that the newspaper’s conduct had brought “shame on British journalism” and said there had been “utter disregard for the claimant’s rights”.

He added: “This should not happen again and newspapers need to be taught that disregard of the rights of others does not pay.”

Mr Price said the story, with its accompanying film on the newspaper’s website, which has so far been viewed three and a half million times, was a “gross and indefensible intrusion” by the newspaper in its role as “Peeping Tom”.

It was made substantially worse by the “shocking and entirely false” suggestion that it depicted Mr Mosley, president of the FIA (Federation Internationale de l’Automobile) playing a concentration camp commandant and a cowering death camp inmate.

News Group Newspapers is strongly contesting the action and argues that publication was justified in the public interest.

Mr Mosley told Mr Justice Eady, who is hearing the case in London without a jury, that there “was not even a hint” of Nazi behaviour during the sado-masochistic session in a Chelsea basement flat in March, for which he paid the women £2,500 (€3,000).

“I can think of few things more unerotic than Nazi role-play”, said the 68-year-old son of 1930s Fascist leader Oswald Mosley.

“All my life, I have had hanging over me my antecedents, my parents, and the last thing I want to do in some sexual context is be reminded of it. I wouldn’t consider my parents to be Nazi but there is obviously a link.”

He added that his sexual behaviour, in which he had indulged for 45 years, was completely out of the scope of his work, and that the exposé had had most effect on his family.

“My wife and I have been married for 48 years and together for more than 50 - we met as teenagers – and she never knew of this aspect of my life, so that headline in the newspaper was completely, totally devastating for her and there is nothing that I can say that can ever repair that.

“Also, for my two sons, I don’t think there is anything worse for a son than to see in a newspaper, particularly one like the News of the World, pictures of the kind they printed.

“I can think of nothing more undignified or humiliating than that. If I put myself in their position – to see my father in that position, I would find it devastating.

“For myself, I’m a fairly robust person. At times in my life I have been subject to various attacks so I can deal with it. Also, I can retaliate, I can bring an action here and on the continent. My family can do nothing except suffer the consequences for something they have no responsibility for.”

Asked if he had done anything to deserve it, he replied: “Absolutely not. I fundamentally disagree with the suggestion that any of this is depraved, fundamentally disagree with the fact that it is immoral.

“I think it is a perfectly harmless activity provided it is between consenting adults who want to do it, are of sound mind, and it is in private.”

Mark Warby QC, giving an overview of the newspaper’s case, argued that it had published a “legitimate and lawful story”.

He said: “The activities that went on here are not deserving of respect, however much they might have been kept behind closed doors.”

Mr Warby told the judge that “whipping or beating someone until he bleeds is a criminal offence” and amounted to the offence of wounding.

He added: “The fact that a person agrees to it, and indeed encourages it and brings it about, is no defence. It is no answer to a charge of wounding that the person concerned agrees.”

Mr Warby added: “The law draws a line and the reason is that sadomasochistic cruelty is contrary to civilised values and is corrupting of those involved.”

He said: “Given the nature and circumstances of the activities in this case there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to the information which is the subject of the claim.

“Alternatively, if there is a prima facie privacy right or expectation it is of very slight weight and not, in all the circumstances, sufficient to outweigh the right to freedom of expression. Publication was in the public interest”

Mr Warby said that if the judge ruled that the newspaper was wrong on those points, and Mr Mosley was entitled to damages, “those should not include the punitive damages he claims”.

The accusation that the News of the World knew it was doing wrong, and went ahead out of a profit move, was “misconceived”.

Mr Warby told the judge that it was “hotly disputed” by Mr Mosley that the orgy had Nazi connotations.

“Indeed it is plain that one of his main aims in this case is to try to clear his name of what has come to be called ’the Nazi sting’.”

Mr Warby said: “The News of the World will assert that it was true to say that the orgy had a Nazi flavour and that this was no accident either. It was designed and intended to do so.”

The hearing, which is due to last two weeks, was adjourned until tomorrow.