From: Robert Edwards
[mailto:rhe@robertedwards38.fsnet.co.uk]
Sent: Tuesday, 8 July 2008 1:59 AM
Subject: sadomasochistic session was 'not Nazi'
Max
Mosley says sadomasochistic session was 'not Nazi'
By
Graham Tibbetts
Last
Updated: 3:48PM BST 07/07/2008
Max Mosley, the Formula 1
boss accused of enjoying a "sick Nazi orgy" with five prostitutes by
the News of the World, has demanded an unprecedented sum in damages at the High
Court.
PA
Max
Mosley (centre) arrives at London's High Court where his case for breach of
privacy against the News of the World is being heard
At the start
of a landmark action, the court heard that the article involving a
sado-masochistic session the 68-year-old enjoyed with five women was
"humiliation of the highest order" and had "devastated" his
life.
Mr Mosley,
the son of 1930s Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, told the High Court that
there "was not even a hint" of Nazi behaviour in the session.
"I can
think of few things more unerotic than Nazi role play", he told Mr Justice
Eady at the start of his ground-breaking breach of privacy action against the
News of the World.
"It
also has associations for me in other ways which would make it even less
interesting.
"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."
Asked if he
saw any Nazi aspect to what the newspaper called a "sick Nazi orgy"
he said: "Absolutely not."
"There
was not even a hint of that - certainly not in my mind and, I'm convinced, not
in the minds of any of the other participants. It simply didn't arise."
James Price,
acting for Mr Mosley said that the president of the Federation Internationale
de l'Automobile (FIA) had accepted that he had been interested in corporal
punishment and S and M since "quite a young age".
"It's
not a surprise to me or to others who don't live in an ivory tower or a
monastery or, I am sure, to your lordship, that to learn that quite a lot of
people, men and women, have a fascinated interest in this sort of thing."
He said
advertisements for such activity were commonplace, and referred to an occasion
when he had to tell his wife she was a little naive when she drew his attention
to a classified ad involving "seats caning", as they needed some
chairs mending.
"Grown
ups, men and women, are perfectly used to the fact that human tastes in sexual
matters are almost infinitely variable and what other people like to do, if
it's not what you like to do yourself, is remarkable.
"To
think about what other people, or worse to look at pictures of what other
people do, can provoke disgust."
He said that
it was an affront to dignity, even to think too closely about what other people
did - whether they were young, old, disabled or homosexual - as it was no-one
else's business. "The News of the World, we say, is out of touch with the
instincts of decent British people in this respect.
"I say
with confidence that the great mass of British people, of News of the World
readers, are tolerant and broadminded.
"They
think what people do in private is their own affair so long as it does not
involve corrupting children or the young or exploiting vulnerable people by
reason of mental incapacity or economic need... there is nothing of that kind
here.
"Most
people will disapprove of conduct which is dangerous...there is nothing of that
kind here.
"Most
people probably think S and M behaviour - spanking, bondage, whipping, role
play like doctors and nurses, sheikhs and harems, guards and prisoners - is
harmless and private and even funny."
The News of
the World coverage showed the naked Mr Mosley being spanked by one of the women
with a whip, as well as using a strap to spank a woman.
Mr Price QC,
said the story which appeared in March with accompanying photos and film on the
newspaper's website, was a "gross and indefensible intrusion" on his
private life.
He told Mr
Justice Eady in London it was made substantially worse by the "shocking
and entirely false" suggestion that the events depicted involved Mr Mosley
- the son of the 1930s Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley - playing a
concentration camp commandant and a cowering death camp inmate.
"This
trial is not a forum to debate the evils or otherwise of Sir Oswald Mosley. The
only point is that the sins of the father cannot justly be visited on Mr
Mosley, who was born at a time when the British Union of Fascists was simply a
memory," said Mr Price.
He suggested
that, given the entire absence of any Nazi aspect to the events, it was the
Mosley association which drove the story.
"If it
had been about Bernie Ecclestone, it would not have been a 'sick Nazi
orgy'," said Mr Price.
He described
the News of the World as a "peeping Tom".
"To
hide a listening device or hidden camera in someone's bedroom in order to spy
on them having sex violates a basic human taboo," he said.
Mr Price
added: "The claimant's life has been devastated by the reports. The
humiliation is of the highest order."
Mr Mosley is
claiming breach of privacy and the action includes an unprecedented claim in
such a case for exemplary or punitive damages as well as compensatory damages.
The News of
the World strongly contests the claim and will argue that publication was
justified in the public interest.
The case
continues.