Sorry, says dominatrix who betrayed Mosley

Woman E, the dominatrix whose betrayal set off the events that led to Max Mosley's court victory this week, has confessed that selling her story was the worst mistake she ever made. "I don't think enough sorries could make up for this. I do feel responsible," she said yesterday.

Woman E was to have been the News of the World's star defence witness in the case brought against it by Mr Mosley, the head of the motorsport regulator, the FIA. But she did not appear in court because of her "emotional and mental state". Mr Mosley successfully sued the newspaper for invasion of privacy.

The News of the World was first alerted to Mr Mosley's sexual habits in a telephone call from Woman E's husband, who was an MI5 officer but has since had to resign. He said his wife was a dominatrix, based in Milton Keynes, and Mr Mosley was a client.

The News of the World paid Woman E £12,000 secretly to tape the event in a Chelsea flat on 26 March, in which Mr Mosley was filmed speaking German and administering and receiving beatings until his bottom bled. The newspaper's lawyers had hoped she would testify the event had a Nazi theme, justifying their headline describing it as a "sick Nazi orgy".

On 6 April, a week after the original story appeared, the News of the World carried a follow-up article, purportedly based on an interview with Woman E, under the heading "My Nazi orgy with F1 boss".

But yesterday Woman E told Sky News: "I constantly told them I didn't want to put my name to that. I would never have said it was Nazi. I signed the article but I was put under massive pressure as I was told I would be put on the front cover and basically they would do a story on me anyway.

"I know for a fact, that it was spoken about, that Max actually found it quite a turn-on to speak to them in German. He liked the German language. It was prison uniforms because we were doing a German prison scene. But it wasn't Nazi.

"I didn't decide to go to the News of the World because of what he [Mosley] was asking me to do – I'm used to stuff like that. It was just an opportunity. I spoke to my husband. It was going to be more of a joke situation than anything. I didn't know how big it was going to be. I feel really sorry for Mrs Mosley and her family. It's devastating for her. She didn't ask for this and I'm very sorry that it came out as it did."

There was more bad news yesterday for the News of the World, which has been ordered to pay Mr Mosley £60,000 damages and face legal costs that could come to £850,000. Mr Mosley's lawyers announced yesterday that he is now going to sue them for libel over an editorial that accused him of being a liar.

They also said he was going to sue Germany's largest newspaper, Bild, for its follow-up of the story.

However, despite the court finding in his favour, his position as president of FIA looks increasingly shaky, despite his having survived a vote of confidence in June. Sir Jackie Stewart, the former world champion driver, said:"Max should now step down and cut out of it totally," he said. "His stewardship of the FIA simply cannot be undertaken in its fullest form because of what has occurred."