Max Mosley at Leveson inquiry

Mosley told the inquiry he felt the publisher of the News of the World was trying to 'destroy' him


Former motor racing boss Max Mosley said today that the press showed "no human feeling at all" in the aftermath of his son's death, a year after he took legal action against the News of the World for a report which accused Mosley of having taken part in a Nazi-themed orgy.

Mosley also told the Leveson inquiry that he felt News Group Newspapers, publisher of the now-defunct News of the World, tried to "destroy" him, after he challenged the original story.

Mosley won his 2008 privacy action and was awarded £60,000 damages, but he told the inquiry today that an earlier request for an injunction on the material had been refused however, given the wide distribution of the material, the inquiry heard.

While the judge considered the injunction the News of the World published a further article claiming to be an interview with one of the women involved, Mosley added.

He told the inquiry he believed this article was sought in an attempt to stand up the Nazi theme element of the story, which he said "was completely untrue and enormously damaging".

In his judgment on Mosley's privacy action Mr Justice Eady said in 2008 there was no evidence which would support the News of the World's claims that the activities were "intended to be an enactment of Nazi behaviour or adoption of any of its attitudes".

During his appearance before the inquiry today Mosley also raised the issue of cost when bringing forward legal action, adding that he was told if he lost it would cost around £1 million and that even if he won "it would still cost tens of thousands of pounds".

But he said he needed to "establish very quickly that the Nazi allegation was completely untrue".

"I also felt that this was typical of some of the things they do and I was somebody who fortunately had the means and a little bit of legal knowledge ... If I don't do it I don't know who is going to. The number of people they pick on who've got the means to fight it is infinitesimally small.

"The terrible thing is unless you're very fortunate, you simply can't take things on."

Mosley, who told the inquiry he had "never" courted publicity, said since the publication of the articles he has managed to get "hundreds" of stories referring to the News of the World material removed from other websites, with litigation ongoing in "22 or 23 countries" today.

He added that the dissemination of the story online is "even more extensive" than in print and called on search engines to stop producing such material in search results.

"I'm trying to do everything I can to get material removed from the web and it's not easy, it's ongoing and very expensive," he said.

"... Google could stop this material appearing but they won't as a matter if principle. If someone were to stop the search engines producing material … the really dangerous things are the search engines."

Earlier this month Mosley won another privacy case against the News of the World in France over the publication of photographs of him with the prostitutes, given that 3,000 copies of the edition were distributed in the country.

Owner of News Group Newspapers News Corporation was fined €10,000 (£8,600) by the French court, and forced to pay £6,000 in damages to Mosley.

Mosley has also been pursuing a prior notification case in the courts for newspapers to be required to inform subjects of articles before publication, but his appeal to the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights in relation to his case was rejected in September.
Tags: Click tag to find related articles; click icon for feed

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).

Related articles