Max Mosley, the motor racing chief, begged a dominatrix who had spanked him at an alleged Nazi orgy for more brutal punishment at their next encounter, the High Court was told.

The News of the World said that the son of the wartime fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley had developed an unhealthy addiction to sadomasochism, spending £75,000 a year on violent orgies.

But Mr Mosley’s lawyer said that the newspaper had recklessly ignored his right to privacy and was only interested in the material gain from publishing its exclusive story and the accompanying video, which sent its website ratings soaring.

Mr Justice Eady heard closing speeches in a case that will consider where the balance of human rights lies in reporting violent sex behind closed doors: does it breach the right to privacy or is it the media’s right under freedom of speech?

Mr Mosley and four of the five women at the party have said in evidence that it was just a prisoners-and-guards game and nothing to do with the Nazis. The fifth woman, who was paid by the newspaper to smuggle a camera into the gathering, was too distressed to give evidence.

Mark Warby, QC, for the News of the World, said that the newspaper had now counted all the strokes received by the head of the Formula One regulator FIA at the first of two parties he filmed for his own purposes in March.

After being struck 88 times, he e-mailed Woman A, the dominatrix organiser, and said that he needed harder punishment.

At the next party, filmed secretly by the newspaper, he was bound, shackled, given 15 lashes from a flayed whip, then tasted six of the best from a woman wielding a toshido martial arts cane.

“It’s hardly surprising that she drew blood, which needed to be dealt with by the application of a surgical dressing,” Mr Warby said.

The prostitutes, in their evidence, had sought to present it as “some kind of worthy activity attended by the most strict health and safety precautions as if it was being carried out by the Bondage and Sadomasochism Regulatory Authority,” he mocked.

Mr Warby added: “This was truly grotesque and depraved.” Children and grandchildren of the Nazis’ victims would be appalled, he said.

James Price, QC, for Mr Mosley, described his opponent’s closing speech as grossly intrusive, outrageous, humiliating and demeaning, deliberately designed to deter people from “having the temerity of suing the News of the World”.

He accused the newspaper of inventing an excuse that the story was in the public interest by saying that the beatings amounted to a criminal assault and that Mr Mosley was unsuitable to remain as president of the FIA.

Neither issue had been mentioned in the reports, he noted. “A public interest justification cannot be of any relevance if it is not communicated to the public,” Mr Price said.

He added that consent was a defence in assault cases. Even if the party had been Nazi, an “appalling and wholly false” description which Mr Mosley denied, there would be no public interest in publishing it.

Mr Justice Eady was urged to award damages so high that newspapers would learn to respect people’s privacy. Judgment was reserved.

Of human bondage

88 violent strokes applied by dominatrix to Max Mosley at sex party on March 8

21 lashes from a flayed whip and Toshido cane on March 28

5ft length of whip and cane

£35,000 paid by Mr Mosley to set up a full-time professional dominatrix, Woman A, in a secret basement flat in Chelsea, West London, for his sex parties

£2,500 total amount paid to participants in alleged Nazi orgy filmed by the News of the World

5 hours the orgy lasted – and the number of prostitutes who joined in the spanking session

3,568,973 hits on orgy video on the tabloid’s website

600% increase in traffic to newspaper website after film was posted

735,000 viewers on YouTube

94 video grabs of orgy shown in the witness box to Colin Myler, the News of the World Editor, who accepted that nearly all of them had no Nazi content

50 years Mr Mosley has known wife Jean, who learnt of his S&M tastes through the newspaper

Source: Max Mosley v News Group Newspapers, trial at High Court