Max Mosley, the head of international motorsport, instigated a “crime upon himself” by taking part in a five-hour S&M orgy, according to the editor of the News of the World.

Colin Myler argued that it was right to publish details of this “criminal” act as it was in the public interest to expose the illicit behaviour of the president of the FIA, which governs Formula One.

Mr Myler said that the brutal role-play, which included the 68-year-old being caned until blood was drawn, did not just have a Nazi element to it, but also a “potential criminal flavour”.

Mr Mosley, the son of British fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley, is claiming punitive damages in the High Court from the newspaper, which he said had breached his right to privacy.

He has admitted to the court that he led a sadomasochistic double life for the past 45 years, which he had concealed from his family, but he denies any Nazi element to his fantasies.

Mr Mosley’s QC, James Price, said nothing unusual took place during the session and argued that one would expect beatings at an S&M party.

Mr Myler replied: “You say it was S&M but blood was drawn. I know it was drawn because he had a plaster on his bottom. I think it was after he’d had 15 beatings of the cane.”

Mr Price said the newspaper was accusing Mr Mosley of instigating a crime upon himself. “Are you serious?” he asked Mr Myler.

The editor replied: “It is what Mr Mosley did. The News of the World did not take Mr Mosley kicking and screaming to that apartment, that flat in Chelsea.

“The News of the World did not engage five girls for five hours of what went on - which was brutal.”

Mr Myler has told Mr Justice Eady, who is hearing the landmark breach of privacy action at the Royal Courts of Justice, that he believed the story was one of “legitimate public interest and one that I believe was legitimately published”.

He said it was “absolutely not true” that the paper fabricated the Nazi aspect of the story.

Mr Mosley was devastated by the expose in March of what the newspaper called a “sick Nazi orgy with five hookers”. His QC accused the News of the World of acting like a Peeping Tom in publishing videos, pictures and a front page story about the orgy.

Mr Myler denied Mr Price’s suggestion that he wanted “intimate pictures of sex”.

“No, I didn’t - not at all. We wouldn’t have published intimate pictures of sex either in the paper or on the website - and we didn’t,” he said.

He denied that he was not interested in testing whether there was genuinely a Nazi element to the images, which were secretly filmed by one of the women involved.

“Not at all,” he said.

He added that publication was probably justified on the S&M basis alone. He said he took a balanced view on whether there was a Nazi theme.

He based his conclusion on his knowledge of general history and the connotations of the role-play - the striped prison camp uniforms, the medical inspection and the use of German.

He said he believed head inspections took place in the death camps, and that people were shaved. Mr Price asked: “Did they have their bottoms shaved as far as you know? [as Mosley did in the video]”

“I don’t know," he said. “We felt that what we saw, what we witnessed, was on balance a fair and reasonable interpretation of Nazi style role play.”

The hearing continues.

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