Formula One supremo (or one of them) Max Mosley has won his privacy case against the News of the World, winning £60,000 damages for its suggestion that his five-hour S&M sex session with five gals in Chelsea had a Nazi theme.
It seems likely that the Nazi angle was just window dressing for the NoW; it would have set up Mosley anyway given half a chance. As it was the paper splashed on the story and provided grainy clips of proceedings on its website.
There will be much fulminating from the News International stable that this is an example of the way that European privacy laws are cramping the style of a fearless free press in the UK.
In fact the NoW is just a smut rag, and jolly lucky to get away with just £60,000 (Mosley sought punitive damages, cheeky so and so).
It is indeed getting harder for newspapers and other media to expose the doings of the rich and famous, but that’s happened, in no small measure, because of the excesses of the likes of the News of the World.
So c’mon chaps, bend over. Whack, lash, ouch!