Formula One boss Max Mosley has confirmed he is to begin libel proceedings in Britain following his privacy victory against the News of the World last week.
Mosley – who won £60,000 from the News International tabloid after it published a report and a film of him taking part in an orgy – said in a newspaper interview yesterday that he will take further action, both in the UK and Europe.
“I feel very strongly that some newspapers literally ruin people’s lives and more has to be done to stop this,” Mosley told the Sunday Telegraph.
“I have achieved a certain amount, but now what I will always be remembered for is my private life – and that’s disappointing.”
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The story at the centre of Mosley’s privacy battle was a News of the World front page, published in March, headlined: “F1 boss has sick Nazi orgy with five hookers”.
In the High Court last week, Mr Justice Eady ruled that there was “no evidence” of “Nazi behaviour” at the orgy, and said there was “no public interest or other justification” for publication of the story.
“Once they published their front page, I had to demonstrate that what they said was false,” Mosley said.
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“I didn’t really have a choice because there was nowhere to hide. I could go to the most obscure village in the Andes and someone with a computer would know what I had been accused of.”
On Friday, Mosley launched a legal bid against Axel Springer, the publisher Germany’s largest newspaper, Bild.
He is claiming €1.5m euros in damages from the newspaper and its online edition, claiming breach of trust, violations of copyright law and fraud.
In an interview with Sky News, the News of the World’s informant, Woman E, who failed to testify at the High Court privacy hearing, said she regretted approaching the News of the World.
“I would just get on my knees and apologise, and just say that I am so sorry for everything that has happened and what has been caused,” she said.
“I didn’t think about what I was doing. I wish I had never done it.”
Mosley is currently suing the News of the World for libel in the French courts.
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