14/07/2008
NEWS STORY
Following Thursday's dramatic events, when the News of the World's key witness (Woman E) withdrew from giving evidence, the action resumed in Court 13 of the High Court in London today, with the tabloid's counsel, Mark Warby QC, summing up his case.
Despite claims that it was only Woman E who could verify that the sex orgy was Nazi themed, the tabloid is pushing ahead with its claim, and that it was fully justified in claiming that Max Mosley took part in a "sick Nazi orgy".
Mr Warby said that the events which took part in the Chelsea flat in March were "grotesque and depraved", quite contrary to the view put forward by Mosley and four of the prostitutes who took part in the session. They had attempted to make out that the five-hour session was "nothing more than hanky-spanky", said Warby.
"There was a general attempt both in the written evidence of the women and in oral evidence to present it as some kind of worthy activity attended by the most strict health and safety precautions," said Warby, "as though it was all being carried out under the guidance of the Bondage and Sadomasochism Regulatory Authority.
"It was even compared with Cowboys and Indians, as though it was nothing more than a dressing-up party for grown-ups," he continued. "There was an attempt, we suggest quite deliberately, to turn it all into some kind of farce, or to make it sound like a tremendous giggle."
However, he claimed: "If nanny stumbled in on Jason and Flora playing the game you have seen on the videos, she would be more than concerned - appalled - and so would the children and grandchildren of the victims of the Nazis. There is a form of corruption of the personality and there is, we suggest, true depravity."
Referring to Mosley's counsel's claim that the "gross and indefensible intrusion" into the FIA President's private life was made worse by the suggestion that the Englishman was enacting a role as a concentration camp commandant, Warby said: "If it's not meant to be Nazi, then what on earth is it meant to be?"
Warby then said that even in a tolerant and broad-minded society, there were certain things fundamentally contrary to western values, and this included the brutality of the Nazi era.
"I invite you to conclude that what went on in the flat suggests that, just as he has remained committed to an unfortunate interest in S&M, some of the old racist sentiments which he was prepared to endorse also remained with him, and the public are entitled to know that."
Referring to the News of the World's editor Colin Myler and reporter Neville Thurlbeck, Warby said: "We say that whatever one may think of the merits of their views, we suggest they were patently sincere in what they said about those views."
For Mosley, James Price QC said that Warby's comments were not for the benefit of the judge - Mr Justice Eady - but for the media, a further attempt to humiliate the FIA President.
Price added that it was now "beyond argument that there was no Nazi element", though this remains the backbone of the News of the World's case.
He told the court: "The defendant's motivation was to publish a scandalous expose. End of story. Nothing else."