Max Mosley, the Formula One President of the FIA, has lost his fight to stop a newspaper putting video footage of him with five prostitutes on their website.
A high Court judge refused to grant Mr Mosley and injunction to prevent the newspaper broadcasting the 90-second extract. It is the same tabloid which last month leaked details of the five hour sadomasochistic meeting with the prostitutes.
Mr Mosley, the son of Sir Oswald Mosley, who was the leader of Britain’s fascist movement before the Second World War, has denied that his actions with the prostitutes had Nazi connotations.
James Price QC, acting for Mr Mosley, told the court that there was no public interest in the clip being aired and that the newspaper was “merely disseminating demeaning and humiliating material.”
The clip had actually been viewed 1.4 million times before it was removed on March 31st pending the outcome of the High Court ruling.
Mr Justice Eady agreed that the material was “intrusive and demeaning” and that there was no public interest in showing it. He said that the footage was “very brief, containing shots of Mr Mosley taking part in sexual activities with five prostitutes, and it also covers the tea break. The very brief extracts which I was shown seemed to consist mainly of people spanking each other’s bottoms. There is also a scene in which Mr Mosley was pretending to have his head examined for lice. This appears to have been part of acting out a prison fantasy, in which he is described as having come from another ‘facility’. This is because notions of restraint and punishment are integral to this type of sexual activity.”
The judge said that Mr Mosley, who was not in court, had not denied the event took place, but maintained that they were private.
Mr Mosley has come under pressure to quit as head of the FIA since the revelations about his private life.
0 comments so far
There are no comments for this post yet. Why not be the first by filling out the form below.