'I wanted to sound bossy'
2008-07-08 21:35
London - Motor racing chief Max Mosley said on Tuesday he spoke German during a sado-masochistic session with five women because the "harsh-sounding" language suited the dominant role he was playing.
Mosley told London's High Court that the role-play "prison" scenario, which is the subject of his breach of privacy action against the News of the World newspaper, involved him and a German-speaking woman being dominant to submissive characters who could not understand them.
The 68-year-old president of Formula One's governing body the International Automobile Federation (FIA), said this "added to the excitement of a scenario.
"German also somehow sounds appropriate for a bossy dominant character. It is a harsh-sounding - rather than a romantic - language," he said.
'Nazi' word not used
Mosley, the son of the 1930s British Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, denies the newspaper's claims that he was taking part in a "sick Nazi orgy with five hookers" and is seeking an unprecedented award of punitive exemplary damages.
He has admitted paying the women £500 each for the session and renting the basement flat in the upmarket Chelsea district of London where it took place on March 28.
On the second day of the court case, Mosley said that at no time did he or a woman identified only as "A", who arranged the "party," ever use the word "Nazi" in their discussions.
"A Nazi theme would be abhorrent to me - and I suspect that none of the women would wish to take part should anyone suggest such a theme," Mosley said.
He said the story had devastated his life because his wife of 48 years, Jean, had not known of his taste for sado-masochism.
His lawyer, James Price, has argued that the "gross and indefensible intrusion" was made substantially worse by the suggestion that Mosley was playing the role of a concentration camp commandant and a death camp inmate.
Checking for head-lice
News Group Newspapers is contesting the action and argues that publication was justified in the public interest.
Mosley agreed that the session involved women wearing black jackets, black boots and a black cap, but denied there were any Nazi connotations.
"Had I wanted a Nazi scene, I would have said I wanted one and A would have got some of the inexpensive Nazi stuff from the joke shop that provides uniforms and would not have gone to Marks and Spencer and got quite expensive jackets."
Mosley said scenes of the women checking him for head-lice and shaving him during the session was "the kind of thing these people do all the time.
"I had never had lice-checking before but went with the flow. I didn't find it particularly erotic," he said.
A participant in the session, Woman D, said the newspaper's description of the women involved as "hookers and prostitutes" was "offensive."
Referring to the newspaper article, Woman D said: "I am particularly appalled at the accusations that our scenarios had any Nazi connotation or overtones. No Nazi images, uniforms or material were used."