F1 boss Max Mosley awarded record damages in 'Nazi orgy' privacy case

Formula One boss Max Mosley was today awarded a record £60,000 in damages after winning his privacy case over claims he took part in a 'sick Nazi orgy'.

High Court judge Mr Justice Eady sided with Mr Mosley in his action against the News of the World, which published pictures of him indulging in a sado-masochistic sex session with five hookers.

He ruled the father-of-two had a right to privacy over his 'albeit unconventional' sexual activities which were not in the public interest, and that there had been no evidence they had a 'Nazi' connotation.

But the judge, who is an expert in privacy cases, stopped short of awarding him any punitive exemplary damages on top of the compensation.

'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,' he said.

'What can be achieved by a monetary award in the circumstances is limited. Any award must be proportionate and avoid the appearance of arbitrariness. I have come to the conclusion that the right award, taking all these circumstances into account, is £60,000.'

Mr Mosley's decision to sue and ask for the extra damages on top of the usual compensation was unprecedented for invasion of privacy cases.

The tabloid had claimed the 68-year-old son of 1930s Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley played the role of a concentration camp commandant and a cowering inmate in the 'sick Nazi orgy' in a London flat earlier this year.

The president of the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile freely admitted in court that he had indulged in sado-masochism and corporal punishment, and had paid women to act out fantasies with him.

But he strongly denied there had been any Nazi element to their sex games and calmly defended his sexual preferences as 'perfectly harmless'.

While the Sunday tabloid argued their story was in the public interest, the Formula One boss's lawyers dubbed it a 'gross and indefensible intrusion'.

In his judgement today, Mr Justice Eady said: 'I decided that the claimant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to sexual activities (albeit unconventional) carried on between consenting adults on private property.

'I found that there was no evidence that the gathering on 28 March 2008 was intended to be an enactment of Nazi behaviour or adoption of any of its attitudes. Nor was it in fact. I see no genuine basis at all for the suggestion that the participants mocked the victims of the Holocaust.

'There was bondage, beating and domination which seem to be typical of S and M behaviour.

'But there was no public interest or other justification for the clandestine recording, for the publication of the resulting information and still photographs, or for the placing of the video extracts on the News of the World website - all of this on a massive scale.

'Of course, I accept that such behaviour is viewed by some people with distaste and moral disapproval, but in the light of modern rights-based jurisprudence that does not provide any justification for the intrusion on the personal privacy of the claimant.'

But he decided against awarding exemplary damages, saying doing so to deter other papers 'does not seem to me to be a legitimate exercise'.

The judge himself admitted that the case was not breaking new ground, saying there was nothing 'landmark' about it and that he had just applied existing law.

He stressed: 'Nor can it seriously be suggested that the case is likely to inhibit serious investigative journalism into crime or wrongdoing, where the public interest is more genuinely engaged.'

The sensational five-day trial earlier this month saw Mr Mosley describe his sexual habits in court in lurid detail.

At one stage, the courtroom was filled with the sounds of slapping and thwacking as an audio tape featuring a woman speaking German was played to the judge.

The News of the World was dealt a blow when the dominatrix who filmed the sex session failed to appear because she was too 'emotionally unstable' to testify.

Mr Justice Eady, who sat without a jury, once regularly represented newspapers accused of hurting the feelings of celebrities during the 1990s.

But as a High Court judge, he has become one of the most important figures in shaping media law and is known for valuing privacy over freedom of expression.

PR supremo Max Clifford, reacting to the ruling today, said the News of the World would have won if they had proven the Nazi allegation.

While it was clear Britain was moving towards a privacy law, he said the decision was unlikely to bring dramatic change because you still needed to be rich and famous to drag papers through the courts.

'I still think obviously that it is very important we have a free press. It is just the excesses of the free press that is causing these problems,' he said.