05/08/2008
FEATURE BY CHRIS BALFE
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There are some among us who wish to do us harm. They despise our wicked ways, our lack of honour, our lack of loyalty and faith, our lack of morality and decency.
After reading the Mail on Sunday, however, I think they just might have a point.
I refer to Angela Levin's interview with Michelle and Martin, or to put it another way, 'Woman E' and her husband. A right pair of moral bankrupts.
Despite being sympathetic to Michelle and Martin - assumed names, naturally - every time they open their mouths they dig themselves deeper and deeper into the stinking hole that is their own creation.
In short, M&M claim that there was no outside party behind the idea to set Max Mosley up in a sting which would result in his private life - no matter how distasteful to the rest of us - being exposed in the News of the World.
Forget about Max being set up by CVC, Bernie or a couple of the manufacturers in an attempt to win control of F1, forget about Ron getting his own back on the FIA President for the humiliation of the spay saga, according to M&M the sting was down to them and them alone, and the driving force was money. Isn't it always?
Having abandoned her leather and chains for Laura Ashley, Michelle (38) poses happily for the Mail on Sunday. She's a hard-faced woman, probably a pre-requisite for her job, and looks as though she's forever chewing a wasp.
The woman who suffered a panic attack on July 10th, somehow found the confidence to face Kay Burley in a televised interview for Sky News just two weeks later, and then meet The Mail on Sunday another week down the line. Camera shy isn't a term you'd associate with Michelle.
The day before she was due to give evidence in the High Court, her husband, who had been forced to resign his position as an Intelligence Officer with MI5, received a letter from his former bosses warning him of his obligations under the Official Secrets Act. "'I had another panic attack," Michelle reveals. Well, it's good to see the panic attacks - the first being on the day of the Chelsea orgy - haven't kept her off the telly or out of our newspapers.
It's a sorry tale, and I urge you to read it, though you might want a cleansing shower afterwards.
Michelle tells us how she left school in Birmingham at 16 with no qualifications, spent time as a hairdresser then drifted, until, aged 30, she was introduced to the wonderful world of S&M.
"I went on the internet and found other people in the scene," she reveals. "There are so many websites it was really easy. I also switched from being submissive to being in charge, and realised about seven years ago that I could make a career out of it."
Nothing gets Michelle on her high horse quicker than being described as a "hooker" or a "prostitute"; "I don't offer a sexual service," she insists. "Clients are not allowed to touch me." No doubt this means that M&M will be consulting legal advice regarding the many websites and newspapers - including the News of the World - which referred to her as one of five hookers/prostitutes present on that momentous day in March.
"I am just a normal mother of two doing a professional job," she tells us.
A normal mother of two, how nice. In Michelle's world maybe this is normal, but judging by the global media reaction it isn't. And what of her two children, how must they feel seeing Mummy on TV and in the Newspapers, wonder if the other kids in the playground will differentiate between 'prostitute' and 'sex worker'.
"My younger one doesn't really understand it, but keeps putting her arm around me to comfort me," Michelle informs us, "but my son is worried about how his friends will react." Too bloody right he will.
Martin (36), we learn, is a former Royal Marine, who subsequently joined MI5. He met Michelle at a Butlins holiday camp in 2003, shades of Tommy, where he was attending a stag party. Whereas he has one child from a previous relationship, Michelle has two. Just your typical British family.
"I told him what I did on our third date," reveals Michelle. "He knew exactly what I meant, but he said it wasn't his scene."
No doubt his former bosses will be delighted to learn that: "Three weeks after we met he told me that he worked for MI5," says Michelle. "I was a bit shocked, but then I suppose he had been rather shocked about me."
Once the relationship got underway, Martin failed to inform his bosses about his partner's means of employment, while at the same time they failed to vet her correctly... something that will inspire confidence in all of us in these troubled times, but more of that later.
"Of course Michelle's work jeopardised my job," Martin admits. "If I had told them they would probably have asked her to stop."
But why would she? Such was her earning power, that by this time she 'earned sufficient money working two or three days a week to buy another house on the Buckinghamshire borders', Ms Levin reveals.
"I wanted to keep it well away from my family home," says Michelle.
It was at their wedding that the problems began, Michelle overspent, and it was the resultant debt that was to lead to the heart of Formula One and the High Court.
"Our financial difficulties grew as a result of our marriage," moans Michelle. "We wanted to have a fantastic wedding. I had a beautiful white dress and 100 guests came for dinner and dancing. The problem was that it cost £18,000.
"Also, the equipment I needed for my work was very expensive," she adds. "For example, my throne of dark wood and red leather cost £800. It's not the sort of thing you can pick up at MFI.
"So, what with all that and overspending on our credit cards, we found ourselves owing well over £20,000 and couldn't see any way of clearing it other than by selling
my story."
Now one might have thought that the work equipment, no matter how bizarre, might have been tax deductible, but one gets the sneaking feeling that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs have heard little from Michelle over the years, hence the ability to buy the second house on the Buckinghamshire borders.
So there you are, you've run up a £20,000 credit card debt, splashing out £18,000 on your wedding and another £800 on your throne, so what do you do? Come on, think about it.
Well, one evening, over supper, Michelle happened to mention to Martin that one of her clients was Max Mosley.
"'He knew exactly who he was," admits Michelle, adding; "Martin is keen and knowledgeable about motor racing and told me he was a very wealthy, powerful and successful individual."
In your mind's eye you can both see and hear it... light bulb flashes followed by the ker-ching of the till. A plot is born.
Now, while Martin might be "keen and knowledgeable about motor racing" and fully aware that Mosley is "a very wealthy, powerful and successful individual", much of the rest of the world isn't as clued up. Indeed, before this sorry saga, most people, including 'man down the pub' had never heard of Max.
On the other patent leather-gloved hand, Michelle has already revealed that; "my clients have high-class careers - they are doctors, solicitors and bankers". Which prompts the question, why didn't she and her partner set up a sting involving one of her other clients. Surely, if she has Mosley as a client, she has, amongst all these bankers and doctors others far more recognisable to the general public, and therefore of more benefit to the media. Surely, the News of the World would be more interested in a prominent businessman, politician or celebrity than the FIA President. Unless... unless.
Anyway, following a number of sessions with Mosley, mostly at the infamous Chelsea apartment, the notorious five-some was set up for March 28.
A few days before the session, Michelle was discussing it with Martin - as you do! - when one of them, they will not admit which, suggested that it would make an interesting story for the newspapers.
According to Ms Levin: 'The following morning, without allegedly bothering to think through the potential devastating consequences, Martin made his dramatic phone calls. Michelle would spank and tell'.
The rest is history.
These are two people who one wouldn't trust to tell the time, unless there is something in it for them. They have loyalty to only one thing, money, and they are driven purely by the desire to get as much of it as possible.
By going public, Michelle has betrayed her children, her own flesh and blood, so why are we not surprised that she has no loyalty to anyone else, having broken the strict code of confidentiality that exists between prostitute - sorry Mich, sex worker - and client.
After all this, this dreadful woman even has the gall to say: "My regular clients have been very supportive, saying that any time I want to go back they would be pleased to see me. But I don't know if I want to or if they will be able to trust me."
'Trust', she couldn't spell the word.
The fact is we have here a pair of liars who will do anything, repeat anything, for money. Furthermore, they are stupid, and this, combined with their greed, makes them blind to what is really happening.
In the same way that this was a sting set up by person or persons unknown, I am convinced that M&M have been bought, that for a price these two pathetic fools have been persuaded to stick their hands up and say "we did it". Whether the price was worth it, I don't give a toss, they are welcome to sink in their own sh**.
In the same way that we have seen articles and denials as to CVC and Bernie's future in F1, this admission by M&M is all part of the game being played out. Michelle and Martin are two pawns in a far bigger game, victims of their own greed.
However, the bottom line, the reason for this piece is not Michelle and Martin, it's not Max, Bernie or CVC, indeed it isn't even about F1.
When I look at the bigger picture, what really, really matters in my life, F1 is low on the totem pole, certainly compared to those I love and care about.
What concerns me is that at the core of this sorry saga we have a man who should have been working for our security services, a man whose duty was to protect us.
In order to keep his job he lied to his bosses, however we learn from Michelle that this is not unusual for MI5 operatives. Referring to that £18,000 wedding, she admits that Martin invited a number of his colleagues, having told them that he thought her means of earning a living 'fine' and 'hilarious'. Even Ms Levin is prompted to ask 'did none of Martin's colleagues see it as their duty to inform their superiors about the secret life of a senior operative?'
"He only invited people on the same level as him,' Michelle reveals. "They are loyal and no one told their bosses."
Loyal to whom Michelle? Loyal to a fellow Intelligence Officer and his sex worker wife as opposed to their employer MI5, and thereby the citizens of this country?
Here we have an Intelligence Officer who 'decided not to tell his employers about his new potentially dangerous liaison'. An Intelligence Officer, who though he denies any part in executing the secret surveillance of the March 28 orgy admits to contacting the News of the World with the story, thereby setting up the sting. Here we have an Intelligence Officer who was forced to resign his position after Quest, the private investigation agency run by Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, began its investigation into who was behind the sting.
Martin wanted it all, he wanted to keep his job in addition to whatever the sting brought in. However, in the murky world of 'kiss and tell' gutter journalism Martin and Michelle were to learn the harsh realities, the £25,000 originally promised never materialised. Instead, the News of the World, blaming the "credit cruch", handed over 'just £12,000. That said, it's for certain that Sky News and the Mail on Sunday contributed to the M&M slush fund.
As I said, looking at the bigger picture, the damage done - or still to be done - to F1, doesn't really bother me. What worries me is that people such as Martin can be compromised in this way.
For imagine, if you will, that rather than setting up a sting involving Max Mosley, Martin was involved in the surveillance of a terrorist cell. The £20,000 credit card bill has to be paid. Therefore, you contact the terrorists tell them that for a price you will give them information, for a price you will give your own people mis-information.
It's like the old story about the man who offers a well dressed woman £10 if she will sleep with him, only to me met with a slap across his face. "OK, how about £10,000," he says. She smiles and nods. "Madam," he hits back, "we have established what you are. Now lets negotiate the price."
We have established that Martin is an Intelligence Officer who can be bought, we know that he had colleagues who were "loyal" to him and not their bosses.
My real fear isn't that F1 will implode, my real fear is that loved ones, friends, ordinary decent people will lose their lives in terrorist outrages because the Martins of this world, those charged with keeping us safe, can be bought. That's my real fear.
If nothing else, I thank Max Mosley for unwittingly exposing this scandalous state of affairs, for this breach of our security services is the real scandal, not what went on in Chelsea on March 28.
As for Michelle and Martin, they deserve all they get, and I don't mean money.
To check out previous features from Chris, click here