F1 boss Max Mosley: My life of kinky sex is private

Mr Mosley, 68, said he enjoyed corporal punishment and role-playing, in which some people "are victims and others more dominant".

Yet his wife of nearly 50 years, Jean, had no idea, he told the High Court. She was "completely and utterly devastated" when the News Of The World published pictures of his sex sessions with five prostitutes in a Chelsea flat.

He is suing the newspaper for massive damages, claiming his right to privacy was breached and he was humiliated when the newspaper acted like a "peeping Tom". The pictures were seen by 3.5million people on a website.

Mr Mosley, president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, governing body of Formula One, admits taking part in the sex session. But he denies claims of a "sick Nazi orgy" in which he said "Sieg Heil" and played the role of a concentration camp guard. He said it "simply didn't arise".

Mr Mosley, son of British fascist leader Sir Oswald, said he could think of "few things so un-erotic" as such imagery. Mr Mosley denied that a beating he received with a cane involved brutality, even though it drew blood. "You have to understand that people who do this a lot become very sensitive and bleed very easily and the pain involved in that, compared to all sorts of things, is very modest."

He said that former Met commissioner Lord Stevens had warned him of an unknown inquiry team seeking information about him covertly. Despite the warning Mr Mosley paid £35,000 for a tenancy on a flat in Chelsea for his friend Miss A, an organiser of S&M parties.

Mr Mosley, being questioned by his barrister James Price, QC, said the kinky sex he liked "involves the administration of some level of corporal punishment by one person on another", adding: "It involves role-play because it addresses and provides a reason for the punishment which is the central activity.

"Obviously people do go into a room and indulge in corporal punishment but it's much more - fun is the wrong word - it's much better if it is accompanied by something that seems to justify what is going on.

"As far as I know, everybody who participates in it enjoys it. The people who are victims want to be victims although some women never take the part of the victim and are purely dominant, some do both and some are purely submissive."

Mr Mosley said he had never seen any brutality involved in his sex sessions but there certainly was a lot of humour. "Quite often what tends to happen after one scene, everybody sits down and discusses it and sometimes it is almost impossible not to laugh."

Mr Price told the court that Mr Mosley had been interested in "bottom spanking, whipping, fantasies and role-play scenarios since quite a young age".

Mr Price said the sado-masochistic role play taped by the News Of The World, included a naked Mr Mosley being spanked by one of the women with a whip and a woman being spanked by him with a strap.

But Mr Price insisted it was Mr Mosley's right to indulge in what he liked in his private life and expect it to be kept private.

News Group Newspapers is contesting the action. Mark Warby, QC, representing the newspaper, said the article was a legitimate and lawful story. He said that whipping or beating a person until he bleeds is a criminal offence even if the so-called victim encourages it.

Cross-examined by Mr Warby, Mr Mosley said the flat was not a "torture chamber" as had been alleged. He agreed that he had paid the women £2,500 for the session, which he termed a party, rather than an orgy.

The hearing continues.