£60,000 for Mosley's pain as newspaper loses case

The Formula One boss Max Mosley, won £60,000 in damages yesterday, the highest ever in a privacy case against a British newspaper, over coverage of the sado-masochistic "party" he held in a Chelsea flat that was secretly filmed by the News of the World.

The implication of yesterday's judgment by Mr Justice Eady is that people who have sexual habits others might find bizarre or unpalatable have the same right to privacy as anyone else.

Although the judge denied he had made a "landmark ruling", the case may have a huge impact on privacy law in the UK.

Parliament has never passed a privacy law, so Mr Mosley's case was based on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which says that everyone has a right to privacy in their private and family life, home and correspondence. The UK signed the convention more than 50 years ago, and incorporated it in British law in 1998.

But it has never been used before in a court case as sensational and highly publicised as the Mosley hearing, which opened at the High Court on 7 July. Most people who have their sex lives exposed in a tabloid newspaper prefer not to have them exposed again – in greater detail – in court.

In a judgment that ran to more than 200 paragraphs, the judge conceded Mr Mosley may have been courting disaster when he paid five women £500 each to join him in a long session of sado-masochistic sex.

"Many would think that if a prominent man puts himself, year after year, into the hands (literally and metaphorically) of prostitutes or even professional dominatrices, he is gambling in placing so much trust in them," the judge said.

"There is a risk of exposure or blackmail inherent in such a course ... To a casual observer and especially with the benefit of hindsight, it might seem that [Mr Mosley's] behaviour was reckless and almost self-destructive. This does not excuse the invasion into his privacy."

The judge added: "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 ruled that the six participants were part of an S&M "scene" whose members were known to each other and were expected to keep their activities secret, and that Mr Mosley therefore had a "reasonable expectation" of confidentiality.

Although the women were paid, the judge said, "it is quite clear from the evidence that there was a large element of friendship involved, not only as between the women, but between them and [Mr Mosley]. "For example, had it not been for the intervention of the News of the World, there was a plan to offer him a free session for his birthday."

Mr Mosley, who was 68 in April, had sued the News of the World over an article that appeared on 30 March, under the headline "F1 boss has sick Nazi orgy with 5 hookers."

He denied the event had a Nazi theme. His evidence was supported by four of the five women. The fifth dominatrix, referred to as "Woman E", secretly filmed the session and sold the story for £12,000. She did not appear during the five-day hearing.

Mr Mosley is the son of the pre-war fascist leader, Sir Oswald Mosley, and Diana Mitford. His parents were married in the presence of Hitler and Goebbels, and were interned soon after their son's birth. Max Mosley shared his father's politics when he was a student activist, but not later.

Mr Justice Eady agreed that there was "no evidence" of any Nazi theme to the event, and ruled that the newspaper had not been exposing wrongdoing or anything of legitimate public interest.

He passed a scathing judgment on the journalist who wrote the story, the News of the World's chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck. "His 'best recollection' is so erratic and changeable that it would not be safe to place unqualified reliance on his evidence," the judge said.

The £60,000 damages, plus costs estimated at £700,000, dwarfs the previous highest payout in a privacy case, when the Canadian folk singer Loreena McKennitt won a £5,000 award against a friend who wrote a book about her which she considered intrusive.

Some libel lawyers said yesterday that the News of the World was lucky that Mr Mosley was not also awarded the "exemplary" damages he had sought. But one media lawyer, Mark Stephens, commented: "One has to be concerned that an award of £60,000 is going to chill investigative journalism because if you get your decision on public interest wrong you are going to pay a hefty price."

The editor of the News of the World, Colin Myler, said that the paper was pleased at the lack of punitive damages, but added that "our press is less free today after another judgment based on privacy laws emanating from Europe".

Piers Morgan, the former editor of the News of the World and the Daily Mirror, added, perhaps tongue-in-cheek: "I am obviously very pleased that celebrities can now get spanked by hookers in German uniforms without fear of the tabloids exposing them, and am just off to my local dungeon."

Andrew Neil, former editor of The Sunday Times, said: "We're getting [a privacy law] bit by bit, by stealth, through judges' ruling in a number of areas. In a way that is more dangerous, because I don't trust judges to give us a privacy law – that's the job of politicians if the democratic system thinks it's right. I think this is very bad news for the media, and a bad day really for freedom of the press."

Max Clifford, the public relations guru, said: "If you're going to do these kind of things and come up with these sensational allegations, make sure you've got it right and make sure you can prove it. The News of the World basically fell down on both counts."

Roy Greenslade, a former editor of the Daily Mirror, said: "I really don't think the press needs to worry about an incursion into its freedom. It's quite clear to me that we are as free today as we were yesterday and last week. We simply have to say to ourselves: is there a reason for doing what we're doing?"

Despite the verdict, Mr Mosley came under renewed pressure to stand down from the presidency of the FIA, the regulatory body that oversees motor sport, a post he has filled, unpaid, for 15 years. Eddie Jordan, a former Formula One team owner, said: "I think a slur is there against him, because I think people don't forget that easy. If it was me, I would now, having won this case, say, 'look, I've achieved what I wanted to achieve... I'm out of here'." Paul Stoddart, the former boss of the F1 team Minardi, said the sport was left "without credibility" while Mr Mosley remained in charge. "Various heads of state that go to Grand Prix don't want to be seen with him."

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