Mosley wins privacy action

Max Mosley, world motorsport chief and son of the wartime British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, won his privacy action against the News of the World today. He was awarded £60,000 damages and £200,000 legal costs after Mr Justice Eady agreed that Mosley had a reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to his sexual activities, which the newspaper had transgressed when it printed pictures and published a video of him online engaging in a sadomasochistic orgy with prostitutes in a London flat.

Eady went on to say that he found no evidence of any Nazi theme to the sex games, and that Mosley's life had been "ruined" by the News of the World's claims. "I found that there was no evidence that the gathering on March 28 2008 was intended to be an enactment of Nazi behaviour or adoption of any of its attitudes," he said.

The News of the World had argued that there was no basis in Mosley's bid for punitive damages as they had believed what they had published - the allegations of Nazi overtones - and so were allowed to print it.

The award of £60,000 compensatory damages is believed to be a record for a privacy case in recent legal history - the News of the World have paid out-of-court damages of £37,500 to Sienna Miller, while Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas were awarded £14,600 against Hello! magazine.

However Judge Eady declined to award any punitive damages to Mosley. The total cost to the News of the World is understood to be £460,000.