On the first day of the landmark legal case involving FIA President Max Mosley and British tabloid the News of the World, the QC acting for the Englishman has accused the newspaper of acting like a "Peeping Tom".

James Price QC argues that the story and video which appeared on the newspaper's website in March, together with the story in the newspaper, was a "gross and indefensible intrusion".

While Mosley admits to visiting the Chelsea establishment for an S&M session with five prostitutes, he vehemently denies the newspaper's claim that there was a Nazi element to the story.

In the wake of the story's publication, it is the Nazi claim, that has caused the real outrage, a situation made all the worse by the fact that Mosley is the son of the 1930s Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley. 'If it had been a story about Bernie Ecclestone, it would not have been a "sick Nazi orgy," said Price.

"We say this hyperbole is quite absurd as a description of what actually happened," Price continued. "It does not come well from the News of the World. The role of the News of the World as Peeping Tom publishing for the amusement of the millions sits uncomfortably with its self-appointed role as arbitrator of the nation's morals.

"Everyone knows that the News of the World lives by sexual titillation," he added. "Everyone knows that the pontificating is just hypocritical. It would be funny if it were not so terribly harmful to the News of the World's victims."

The case continues.