F1 calls in top lawyer to test Mosley’s denials

The heat is being turned up on Max Mosley (pictured), the motor racing boss who was exposed in a newspaper sting five weeks ago as having taken part in a Nazi-style, sado-masochistic orgy with five call-girls. In a move that is seen by insiders as a bid to unseat him from his job, the organisation he fronts, the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), has called in one of Britain's foremost legal brains, Anthony Scrivener, QC, to provide a legal analysis to test the veracity of Mosley's persistent denials that there was a "Nazi element" to his sexual cavortings.

While the FIA stresses that Mosley has sanctioned the appointment of Scrivener, a barrister known for his forensic mind - Saddam Hussein attempted to recruit him as his lawyer in 2005 - it is felt this could be the final nail in his coffin.

Mosley, the son of the British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, is also facing an extraordinary general meeting of the FIA in Paris on June 3 when his future will be decided in a secret ballot of all 222 voting members. By that time Scrivener's opinion will be available to members.

The News of the World first published allegations about Mosley's orgy five weeks ago. After he denied the claim that there was a Nazi element, the paper quoted one of the prostitutes the following week, alleging that not only did Mosley know the session would have a Nazi theme but that he specifically ordered this.

Mosley has denied this and is taking legal action against the newspaper. He has also hired Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, to prove his suspicion that he was the victim of a conspiracy to destroy his reputation.