‘Invasion of privacy is worse than burglary – you can never get back what you’ve lost’

Former Formula 1 boss Max Mosley accused the UK government of having been “completely in the thrall of” newspaper bosses.

Mosley, who was the subject of a News of the World article alleging he had a “sick Nazi orgy”, wanted the European courts to force journalists to notify people before publishing damaging stories about them.

But he had not thought it worth asking the British government to introduce such a law, he told the Leveson Inquiry into press standards.

He said: “The UK government were, to put it bluntly, completely in the thrall of Mr Murdoch and the other big newspaper people, who would have objected.

“That spell has now been broken, I think, fairly conclusively, and I don’t see any reason why such a law should not be brought in.”

The European Court of Human Rights has already rejected Mosley’s suggestion of a law requiring prior notification, but he insisted that in some cases it was “essential”, in order to stop “an egregious breach of privacy”.

Invasion of privacy, he argued, was “worse than burglary” as someone who is burgled can replace their lost belongings and repair the damage.

“If someone breaches your privacy you can never repair the damage, never put it right again,” he said.

Mosley was awarded a record £60,000 in privacy damages at the High Court after taking legal action against the News of the World for its Nazi orgy story published on 30 March, 2008 – a story he strongly denied.

But, he said: “Once the information has been made public it can never ever be made private again.”

After the court case he wrote to Rupert Murdoch, who owned the now defunct Sunday tabloid, setting out his concerns, the inquiry heard. But Mosley never received a reply, he said.

Echoing comments made by Labour MP Tom Watson to Mr Murdoch’s son James at a House of Commons select committee hearing earlier this month, he said: “That to me is the conduct of the mafia.

“It’s what you would expect if you wrote to the head of a mafia family complaining about one of their soldiers. You would probably get no reply.”

Similarly, James Murdoch was accused by Mr Watson of acting like a “mafia boss” at his second appearance before the Commons culture committee’s inquiry into the scandal on 10 November.

Mosley also reserved sharp words for Daily Mail editor-in-chief Paul Dacre who, following the “orgy” story, said Mosley was “guilty of unimaginable depravity”, the inquiry was told.

“I have no idea what Mr Dacre’s sex life is,” he said. “It’s not up to me to go into his bedroom, film him and write about it. It’s his business.

“And equally if somebody has a slightly unusual sex life, exactly the same thing applies.”

The hearing heard details of the death in May 2009 of Mosley’s son, Alexander, who had been a drug addict.

Discussing the possible impact of the “orgy” story on the 39-year-old, Mosley said: “For my sons, to see pictures of your father in that sort of situation all over the newspapers, all over the web … he really couldn’t bear it.

“He went back on the drugs and it would not be right to say he committed suicide, he didn’t … But like many people on hard drugs, it’s extremely dangerous and you can make a small mistake and you die and that’s what happened.”