Max Mosley threw his weight — and his millions — behind calls for stricter Press controls after the News of the World filmed him at a sadomasochistic orgy with five prostitutes.
He took the Sunday newspaper to court in 2008 and won a landmark privacy case.
He successfully sued the News of the World for claiming his five-hour bottom-spanking, whipping and fantasy session with women in striped prison pyjamas had a ‘Nazi theme’.
For five days over the summer that year, the High Court in London heard evidence from Mr Mosley and four dominatrices about their S&M party. The fifth dominatrix had secretly filmed the orgy for the News of the World, and did not appear in court.
Max Mosley threw his weight — and his millions — behind calls for stricter Press controls after the News of the World filmed him at a sadomasochistic orgy with five prostitutes
On the afternoon of March 28, 2008, Mr Mosley — calling himself ‘Mike’ — walked to a £2 million riverside flat which he rented for a year on London’s Chelsea embankment with £2,500 cash in his pocket to pay the five prostitutes.
The main dominatrix, a blonde referred to as Woman A, had arrived earlier with whips and uniforms including a modern Luftwaffe jacket.
Dressed in her German military uniform, she gave Mr Mosley a ‘judicial’ — which Mr Justice Eady explained in his judgment is a ‘very common form of role-play on the S&M scene’. Mr Mosley’s ‘sentence’ involved him being ordered to undress and given a ‘medical inspection’, including his head being examined for lice.
In his judgment, Mr Justice Eady quoted from the News of the World’s report of what happened, which was headlined ‘F1 Boss Has Sick Nazi Orgy With 5 Hookers’.
It said Mr Mosley lay naked and trussed up in chains as one of the women beat his backside with a cane until he bled.
Mr Mosley’s masochistic punishment over, he then proceeded to take a turn as a sadist.
He beat two prostitutes wearing striped prison uniforms, counting out the lashes in German.
One of the ‘prisoners’, Woman D, told the court it was painful ‘but in a nice way’.
The main dominatrix, Woman A, said that, after receiving whatever number of strokes she had set herself as a target, it was ‘the best feeling in the world’.
Mr Mosley at the High Court in 2008
Mr Mosley and one of the other women barked orders in German during the S&M session because it suited their prison scenario, it was explained to the court, the language being ‘harsh and guttural’.
Mr Justice Eady said it was clear that Mr Mosley ‘threw himself into his role with considerable enthusiasm’.
The judge said it was all ‘no doubt interesting to the public’, but he concluded Mr Mosley’s ‘unconventional’ sex life — which he had indulged in for some 45 years — was not genuinely a matter of public interest. And he ruled that there was no Nazi element to the orgy, as the newspaper had claimed.
Mr Justice Eady said: ‘The newspaper accused [him] of playing a concentration camp commandant, but he was dressed (if at all) only in white shirt and the dark trousers of a business suit.’
And while Mr Mosley was shaved during the orgy, it was not his head that was shaved, as were those of concentration camp victims.
The judge said Mr Mosley, ‘for reasons best known to himself, enjoyed having his bottom shaved — apparently for its own sake rather than because of any supposed Nazi connotation’.
The judge ruled that although the young women ‘victims’ wore striped pyjamas, these were akin to a generic prison uniform, with nothing to specifically identify them as being clothing from the Nazi era.
Nor, the judge ruled, did a reference to ‘the Aryan race’ make any difference. This remark came during a similar orgy on an earlier date, which had been videotaped for Mr Mosley’s private use.
After watching it, Mr Justice Eady said: ‘There was, of course, plenty of spanking, and references to “judicial” penalties . . . [and] some sort of game involving rivalry between blondes and brunettes.
‘At one point, the dark-haired woman lying on the sofa raises her head and cries out “Brunettes rule!”
Mosley outside the Royal Courts of Justice following the court case in 2008
‘Within a moment or two, a voice from off-camera can be heard (accepted to be that of Woman A, who is indeed blonde) gasping out words to the effect: “We are the Aryan race — blondes.”‘
Asked about this, Mr Mosley claimed he had not heard it at the time — blaming his hearing aids.
The judge ruled the remark was ‘unscripted and occurred amid a good deal of shouts and squeals (of delight or otherwise)’ and was not therefore Nazi-related.
Mr Justice Eady concluded: ‘Beatings, humiliation and the infliction of pain are inherent to S&M activities. So, too, is the enactment of domination, restraints, punishment and prison scenarios. Behaviour of this kind, in itself . . . does not entail Nazism.’
He said anyone indulging in sexual activity between consenting adults was entitled to privacy, adding: ‘Even if one happens to agree it was “depraved”, it by no means follows they are matters of genuine public interest . . . the private conduct of adults is essentially no one else’s business.’
He said there was ‘nothing landmark’ about his ruling, but critics said it would have a ‘chilling effect’ on freedom of speech.
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