Max Mosley has been awarded £60,000 in damages following a libel action against The News Of The World for a breach of his reasonable expectations of privacy.

Following an article entitled 'F1 boss has sick Nazi orgy with 5 hookers', The newspaper exposed Mr Mosley’s 'S&M' sessions with 5 women, acting out a prison fantasy with an alleged Nazi-slant.

Because of Mr Mosley’s position as the president of FIA and due to his father, Oswald Mosley, the infamous Nazi-sympathiser. There was massive world-wide publicity. There was also considerable public outrage and a number of high profile individuals criticised Mr Mosley’s alleged actions. He was under pressure to resign his post and had to survived a vote of confidence.

The Judge, Mr Justice Eady held that Mr. Mosley had a reasonable expectation of privacy 'in relation to sexual activities (albeit unconventional) carried on between consenting adults on private property'.

The crux of the NOTW’s defence was that publication of the story was in the public interest, given Mr Mosley’s prominent position as head of a large organisation with members of many different nationalities.

The Judge concluded, however, that there was no justification on the evidence for the suggestion that the S & M sessions had a Nazi-slant. A secondary argument that there was also a public interest in exposing the 'depraved' sessions even in the absence of the Nazi connotations, stating that this was an example of what was interesting to the public rather than in the genuine public interest.

The £60,000 award was justified on the basis that: 'He is hardly exaggerating when he says that his life was ruined.' However, the Judge declined to award exemplary damages (i.e. punitive damages in the nature of a fine) for which there is no precedent.

Although the damages awarded were the highest to date in a privacy case (excluding settlements out of Court), the Judge observed thet there was nothing landmark about this decision. The Judge applied legal principles which are now well established, the only difference being that this case involved a far greater invasion into the Claimant’s private life than previous cases.

So at the end of a bizarre battle that's seen a man's reputation ruined. It turns out that the News of the World, invaded a private property, filmed consenting adults in a pre-arranged 'sex session' and then published photographs and videos, adding a deeply abhorent twist about 'Nazis', playing on Mr Mosley's fathers fascist beliefs and it was all untrue. £60,000 doesn't seem enough.



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