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Max Mosley victory: the death of kiss-and-tell
Paul Cheston24 Jul 2008
The sex lives of the rich and famous are "no one else's business", the Max Mosley privacy case judge ruled today.
Mr Justice Eady awarded the Formula 1 boss a record £60,000 damages at the High Court, saying there was no justification for the News of the World to secretly film Mr Mosley's five-hour S&M party with fiveprostitutes and publish "on a massive scale". He added that sexual conduct which did not break the law was not a matter of "genuine public interest" - casting doubt on the future of tabloid kiss and tell stories.
His decision was described as a landmark for privacy by legal experts and hailed by Mr Mosley, who said it "nailed the lie" that the orgy at a Chelsea flat had a Nazi theme.
Mr Justice Eady said the modern world considered people's sex lives private - and newspapers had to follow suit. "That is so whether the motive for intrusion is merely prurience or a moral crusade," he ruled."The fact that a particular relationship happens to be adulterous, or that someone's tastes are unconventional or 'perverted', does not give the media carte blanche."
One leading lawyer said the judgment would have a "chilling effect" on free speech.
Mark Stephens of Finers Stephens Innocent told the Standard: "At £60,000 the damages are unprecedented in a privacy case. This cannot be regarded as anything other than a landmark. It will now be difficult for a newspaper to show reasonably the need to put a hidden camera in someone's bedroom."
In his ruling, the judge tried to emphasise that he had not made a "landmark decision" and refused Mr Mosley's demands for extra exemplary or punitive damages against the paper.
He imposed an injunction on the video of the S&M session, which has had more than 3.5 million hits on the News of the World's website.
The defeat means that on top of the damages, the newspaper must pay £850,000 in legal costs.
The £60,000 award beats a previous record privacy damages settlement of £58,000, jointly awarded to Hugh Grant, Elizabeth Hurley and her husband Arun Nayar against a picture agency.
Mr Justice Eady said that even if there was adultery, and even if one agreed with the newspaper that it was "depraved", it did not follow that they were matters of genuine public interest.
Outside court, Mr Mosley said: "I would like to say I'm delighted with the judgment, which is devastating for the News of the World. It has nailed the Nazi lie upon which the paper sought to justify their disgraceful intrusion into my private life.
"By law we are all entitled to have our privacy respected. The News of the World invaded my privacy, dreamt up the most offensive headline possible, and decided that I should not be contacted before publication to prevent me asking the court for the injunction I would have been entitled to.
"They and their lawyers have then conducted this case so as to cause maximum embarrassment in the hope that I would be discouraged from continuing."
He added: "The judgment also shows that they had no right to go onto private premises and to take pictures and film adults engaged in activities which are nobody's business but their own."
Mr Mosley said that going to court "in the full glare of the media has been extremely difficult" but hoped his success would deter other tabloids from "this type of invasive and salacious journalism". The damages will be donated to the FIA Foundation, which promotes motoring safety and the environment.
Mr Mosley, the 68-year-old president of the FIA, had sued the newspaper over the March story headlined "F1 boss has sick Nazi orgy with five hookers".
On a video secretly made by one of the women involved in the afternoon S&M session, Mr Mosley was struck 88 times by a dominatrix until his bottom bled.
They were acting out a role-playing scene involving prison guards, dressed in military uniform and speaking German, beating prisoners in black and white hooped outfits.
He had paid £35,000 for professional dominatrix Miss A to use a basement flat in Chelsea for his sex parties and £2,500 to each of the five girls to beat him and be spanked by him.
The newspaper claimed the story had been lawfully acquired and was published in the public interest.
But Mr Mosley's lawyers argued that his right to privacy under the European Human Rights Act had been breached.
The judge ruled that he did have "a reasonable expectation of privacy in sexual activities - albeit unconventional - between consenting adults on private property."
He went on: "There was no evidence that the gathering was intended to be an enactment of Nazi behaviour. 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&M behaviour. But there was no public interest or other justification for the clandestine recording, the publication of the resulting information and still photos or the video extracts on the News of the World website - all of this on a massive scale."
The judge accepted that the kinky, erotic thrills enjoyed by Mr Mosley and his bondage professionals would meet with some distaste and moral outrage but that did not justify an intrusion into privacy.
He added: "It has to be recognised that no amount of damages can fully compensate Mr Mosley for the damage done. He is hardly exaggerating when he says that his life was ruined."
Colin Myler, editor of the NoW, said the ruling had left the press "less free".
"As the elected head of the FIA, Mr Mosley is the leader of the richest sport in the world, with a global membership of almost 125 million," he said.
"This newspaper has always maintained that because of his status and position he had an obligation to honour the standards which his vast membership had every right to expect of him.
"Taking part in depraved and brutal S&M orgies on a regular basis does not in our opinion constitute the fit and proper behaviour to be expected of someone in his hugely influential position."
Reader views (5)
I really have to applaud..I am sick to death of the NOW's hypocritical position on their countless "exposes".
Dressing up purience as "moral outrage" or "moral rectitude" and invasion of privacy as "investigative journalism" for decades. High time they were taken down a peg or five.
Having sex with five women ? Hey! Well done mate ! Kudos to you Max nothing to be ashamed about! Embarrassed yeah but not ashamed.
The domination bit was a bit weird I must say.
If the NOW had simply said "Max Mosley" has sex with five women" they would have been home dry.
- Jason Stone, Stratford, Newham, 25/07/2008 10:17
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Max Mosley has made himself a bigger laughing stock than if he had done the decent thing, and let the matter go away.
The amount of exposure, if you will pardon the expression, that his court case has given to his sordid little life is much more than the NOW could ever have done, because more people will have read about it now.
Surely not many people believe his self-justification, he is clearly a disturbed and sick person.
- Stephen Rothbart, Prague, Czech Republic, 24/07/2008 16:31
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Max may well appeal for more damages yet.
It has also opened the door for him to take action for libel on all those in motor sport and the media who have felt justified in supporting the hacks of the gutter now.
Those who know the identity of the people behind the entrapment should now give this information, they are in a very sticky position.
The ex MI5 operative knows for one.
- Keith Gerrard, Norwich England, 24/07/2008 16:30
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Myler again! Remember Leeds soccer trial & Sunday Mirror?
- Driller, London UK, 24/07/2008 16:22
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That's a win for the News of the World, then. There is no reason here for them not to do exactly the same sort of thing again. £60,000 is no discouragement.
- Chris, London, 24/07/2008 14:14
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