London: Former Formula One chief Max Mosley
told an inquiry on Thursday that Rupert Murdoch`s News International
tried to "destroy" him after he challenged a story about his
involvement in a sadomasochistic orgy.
The inquiry into British press standards heard that
Mosley, 71, took the publisher of the News of the World to
court after it published a front-page story in March 2008
entitled "F1 boss has sick Nazi orgy with 5 hookers."
But after Mosley sued over the untrue Nazi claims and
over the wider invasion of privacy, News International`s
lawyers sent video of the incident to the International
Motoring Federation (FIA) and invited its members to view it.
"I had the impression from the outset that as soon as I
challenged the original story, that the entire resources of
News International... were then deployed effectively to
destroy me," Mosley told the judge-led inquiry.
"One way of doing that was by sending it to the FIA,
getting them to look at it and hoping that they would get rid
of me."
Mosley also alleged that Neville Thurlbeck, the News of
the World`s former chief reporter, had during a rehearsal for
the tabloid sting coached one of the woman involved in the
orgy to try to get him to give a Nazi salute on a hidden
camera.
"At the beginning of the tape, Thurlbeck is saying to
her: `When you get him to do the sieg heil, get him to stand
back about three metres when you get him in the shot,`" Mosley
said.
Mosley, whose father Oswald Mosley led a British fascist
party in the 1930s, has acknowledged paying five women for
sex, but said the event was a prison fantasy and not
Nazi-themed.
PTI
