Mosley wins £60,000 in privacy case

My Account
Logout

Create an Evening Standard Account

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Welcome! Sign in here

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Forgot your password ?

Registration

* indicates fields that are mandatory

Email *

Password *

Confirm Password *

First name *

Surname *

Postcode *

Country *

Mobile phone number

Username *

Gender *

Year of birth *

When you sign up...

You will have access to all our online competitions, discounted offers and can post comments on our site.

You will also receive The Weekender newsletter sent every Thursday - it’s full of fantastic offers and ideas for the weekend. You can update your email preferences in your account page when you log in.

Other newsletters and emails

Homes & Property Newsletter - Yes I want to receive the weekly email with all the latest news on property in the capital

Occasionally we would also like to send you relevant emails detailing specific offers either from ourselves or carefully selected partners. If you would prefer not to receive these then please tick the appropriate boxes below. We will never pass on your details.

I do not want to receive additional offers and information from the Evening Standard

I do not want to receive additional offers and information sent by Evening Standard on behalf of carefully selected partners

Terms and Conditions

* I have read, understood and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of Evening Standard

Registration

Mail Sent for Registration Confirmation.

A confirmation email has been sent. Please activate your account by clicking on the activation link sent in your mail box.

The newspaper also faces a total costs bill of about £850,000 following a judgment which its editor claimed was further evidence investigative journalism was being "strangled by stealth".

It had accused the 68-year-old son of the 1930s' Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley of "truly grotesque and depraved" behaviour with five prostitutes during two sadomasochistic sex sessions.

Mr Mosley, president of the FIA (Federation Internationale de l'Automobile), said the role-play at a rented Chelsea basement was harmless, consensual and private, with no Nazi overtones.

Mr Justice Eady, who had awarded the previous highest damages for infringement of privacy - £5,000 to singer Loreena McKennitt - refused to order punitive exemplary damages against News Group Newspapers, which would have been a first for a privacy case.

He said: "It has to be recognised that no amount of damages can fully compensate the claimant for the damage done. He is hardly exaggerating when he says that his life was ruined. The scale of the distress and indignity in this case is difficult to comprehend. It is probably unprecedented."

Mr Mosley's QC, James Price, said the size of the award represented a move to "a new level" in privacy cases and would deter newspapers thinking of carrying similar stories.

Mr Mosley had told London's High Court that his life and that of Jean, his wife of 48 years - who was unaware of his sexual tastes - and two adult sons, was devastated by the expose in March and by the newspaper putting secretly-filmed footage on its website, which attracted at least 3.5 million hits.

Mr Price said that the "gross and indefensible intrusion" was made worse by the false suggestion that Mr Mosley was playing a concentration camp commandant and a cowering death camp inmate.

The newspaper's editor, Colin Myler, said he believed the story was one of "legitimate public interest and one that I believe was legitimately published" and that it was "absolutely not true" that the newspaper had fabricated the Nazi aspect.