Why privacy isn't just for the rich

Cross-posted from Heresy Corner

The Daily Mail - along with several other respectable news outlets - brings us the story of Faith-Anne Lesbirel, primary schoolmistress by day and "kinky dominatrix" by night, whose unconventional second job has now led to a dressing down from the General Teaching Council. Found guilty of "unacceptable professional misconduct" (is there such a thing as acceptable professional misconduct?) she has received a two-year reprimand. She has, however - as the Mail was forced to report - "escaped being struck off." The panel also displayed a perhaps unexpected - and welcome - degree of enlightenment when it concluded that her essentially private activities did not make her a danger to children.

By most accounts, indeed, she was an excellent and well-loved teacher, working at a school in Milton Keynes. But she was also into things like domination and sploshing, and as "Mistress Saffron" advertised her services online, both on her own website and on a forum for like-minded people called "Informed Consent". It was this advertising, we are led believe, that got her into trouble. The report quotes the tribunal's ruling that "the reputation and public standing of the profession was placed at risk by your choosing to initiate and run such a website and indeed the exposure of this did in the event damage the school and the profession." The clear implication is that the "publicly accessible" nature of both her website and the online forum was responsible for bringing her activities to the notice of local parents, who complained to the school. And that her exposure was therefore her own fault.

That isn't really what happened.

Faith-Anne Lesbirel - who was also known as Faith Hamilton - carried out her BDSM activities for a long time without any of the parents or children finding out. And there was little reason why they should have found out. Informed Consent might be "publicly accessible", in the sense that anyone can view its contents without registering as a member, but it unlikely that many people would come across it without at least having a pre-existing interest in the subject. The same goes for her Mistress Saffron website. This is a niche area of the web, inhabited mainly by mistresses, their clients, and the odd tabloid journalist. Her two identities should have remained quite separate, as long as she observed a certain degree of cicumspection.

Faith may have been a victim of the Max Mosley scandal. Those who are in a position to know believe that she was betrayed by "Woman E" - also known as Mistress Abi, "Michelle" and latterly Mistress Kiera - the dominatrix who secretly recorded the goings-on in that notorious Chelsea basement as part of the News of the World sting operation. You may recall that the relationship between "Abi" and the newspaper went sour after she was unable to provide Neville Thurlbeck with cast-iron proof that Mosley's party had had a "Nazi theme". In an interview with Sky News, she said that she had never claimed that there was a Nazi theme - it was all a product of Thurlbeck's lurid imagination. Whatever the truth, it seems that the Screws pressed her to provide some additional titillating information to justify their payments to her. And so she gave them Mistress Saffron the kinky schoolteacher. Who was supposed to be a friend of hers, as well as a fellow member of the Milton Keynes dungeon sorority.

The story appeared under the headline "Miss gets strict with PVC punters" and was illustrated with pictures taken from her website. The paper predicted, not as is happened inaccurately, that "parents of the kids she teaches would go ballistic. While they’re reading their youngsters Winnie the Pooh at bedtime, their teacher is hard at it as a Miss Whiplash hooker."

The involvement of Woman E has never been officially confirmed, I should say (though the coincidence of time - May 2008 - and place - Milton Keynes - is striking). What is beyond doubt is that it was the exposure of Ms Hamilton/Lesbirel in the News of the World, not her website, that led to her departure from the school - leaving her out of a job and the children, to whom she was devoted, confused and upset. To the News of the World, it was all in a day's work, of course. As Clair Lewis - longstanding friend of this blog - says in a statement released today by the campaigning organisation CAAN, "some media people remain unconcerned about smearing people and the dangers this poses. Shame on them."

With Mosley's lawyers breathing down their neck, ruining the career of an unknown schoolteacher represented a much safer strategy than continuing to pursue that increasingly threadbare scoop. Faith-Anne Lesbirel wasn't going to sue them for invasion of privacy. She was in no position to get a super-injunction from Mr Justice Eady. She certainly didn't stand ready to petition the European Court of Human Rights to demand prior notification of embarrassing revelations. The most someone like her can hope for is a positive ruling from the largely toothless Press Complaints Commission.

Sadly, with celebrity exposés now threatened by the advance of privacy law we may see more stories like hers, with the press attempting to justify their prurient interest in people's private lives because they happen to be teachers, nurses, social workers or police officers. And while professional bodies continue to have widely-drafted - some would say discriminatory - policies against "bringing the profession into dispute", anyone falling foul of a tabloid "outing" may well face much more devastating personal reperpercussions than the fleeting embarrassment of some footballer who has visited a hooker. Read the rest of this article

Mistress of Reinvention

It's a year since the Heresiarch first became intrigued by the goings-on of Max Mosley and his friends in Chelsea. For those directly involved, it has been quite a year - especially for Mosley himself who not only won his legal action and reasserted his control over the FIA but has turned himself into a scourge of tabloid journalism. His ongoing feud with Paul Dacre may well lead to permanent changes in the way in which newspapers operate in this country, for good or ill.

For his nemesis, the Milton Keynes-based dominatrix known officially as Woman E, who filmed the private spanking party (inaccurately described as a "Nazi orgy") at the behest of NoW's Neville Thurlbeck, the fallout from the affair has been less happy. Her husband lost his job with MI5, the Screws diddled her out of some of the money they had promised, she was shunned as a traitor by many former colleagues, barred from clubs and placed on blacklists. She was reduced to begging forgiveness in a cringe-making Sky Television interview - in which she was revealed as a very ordinary-looking housewife called "Michelle" - and selling her story to Dacre's Mail on Sunday.

It seemed to be all over for her. But, as the Heresiarch can exclusively reveal, the dominatrix formerly known as Abi is now getting back into the mistressing business. She has a new name, a new website, and even a new costume which an untutored eye might think incorporates elements of Nazi chic.




In her new site, illustrated with pictures both of her facilities and of herself in a number of poses, she introduces herself as "Mistress Kiera, supreme Dominatrix and Goddess". "I am a tall, beautiful, sensual and sadistic Dominatrix with many years of experience," she proclaims. "I have a commanding presence and I am always dressed in the finest rubber, leather and fetish clothing." But although she might "seem an unattainable goddess", she reassures her potential clients that she is "approachable" and will "consider most requests". Including, no doubt, those from journalists.

Kiera offers "high class BDSM and fetish services from my fully equipped chambers in Buckinghamshire". (Always fully-equipped, these dungeons. When did you last hear of a "semi-equipped dungeon"?) The range of her services is as extensive as ever, ranging from "anal training" and "foot worship" to "light to severe nipple torture" and "shaving". Wasn't that one of Max's special requests?

Not without reason, given last year's events, Kiera would appear to be especially proud of her expertise in blackmail. She boasts:

I run a number of blackmail and financial schemes including; taxation, extortion, contractual control, photo and personal details blackmail. Each scheme is tailored to individual requirements and a bespoke contract will be drawn up between us by my legal slave. Because of timewasters you will be expected to prove you are genuine by either visiting me for a session or pay an upfront fee to cover the set up costs (contracts etc) before any scheme can start.

She must regret not following these rules when negotiating with Mr Thurlbeck.

Given the animosity towards her in the tight-knit world of bondage and whipping, it might be expected that she would be desperate for any custom that came her way. But apparently she can still afford to be choosy. She writes:

Personal hygiene is extremely important to me and I expect the same from clients. Anyone arriving for a session who is lacking in this area will be turned away. Also anyone who in my opinion is under the influence of alcohol or drugs will be turned away. My chambers are situated within a private house and are extremely discreet. I expect the same level of discretion from all clients in return. Anyone who fails to arrive for an appointment without having the courtesy to cancel will be banned from ever visiting me again. Likewise all other timewasters will have their phone and email details submitted to 'timewasters' websites and to fellow Mistresses.

As to who those fellow mistresses might be, we are given no clues. Presumably they don't include the celebrated Mistress Switch, her former best friend turned sworn enemy, who has been warning her contacts and anyone else who cares to listen of the prospect of Woman E's re-entry onto the scene for several months now. On an online forum, La Switch has repeatedly calumniated her traducer as "thick" and "a liar" who "has no loyalty to anyone except herself". "Leopards don't change their spots", she believes. She complains that:

This bitch is playing the sympathy angle, I hear what untrue stories she is putting about. I'm sure she'll be deluding herself and not facing facts. Too scared to look at herself and see what she did. All you have to remember is SHE (not her husband, not the newspaper) walked into a flat wired and betrayed a client and her friends for money. Who would do such a thing?

Who indeed? Clearly, for Mistress Switch, the anger is still very raw against a woman who "went against everything that is fundmental to a PD/client relationship, discretion and trust". She was "blinded by the pound signs" says Switch, who isn't above issuing the odd predictive curse:

I believe in karma. Years ago a neighbour caused our family unnecessary nasty aggravation. My husband said at the time that she was evil to the core. 2 years later she died of bone cancer.

Another mistress joins in, expressing doubt that Kiera's new venture will prove successful. "Even the watersports enthusiasts wouldn't piss on her if she was on fire!" But this lady intuits that there might be something more to the story:

Is she hoping that this will hit the tabloids and get her some more lucrative column inches, a contract with Max sodding Clifford, and perhaps a new job on the telly where she's wheeled out to make a comment on every future scandal as it breaks from an *insider's* perspective? It all seems a bit odd.

It makes the atmosphere in the higher reaches of the Labour party seem loving by comparison.

"She's most likely back because she's penniless and isn't qualified to do anything else" Andi Switch speculated the other day. She's advising anyone booking a session with Kiera to "film your sessions for You Tube, we could do with the laugh being on her". I thought YouTube had guidelines about that kind of thing.

For Mistress Switch herself, things are going rather better. Together with two of the other Mosleyettes and a number of other women, she was in Las Vegas a couple of months ago to film some shorts and take part in a prestigious spanking convention. She continues as active as ever in her particular demi-monde. Women C and D are equally busy: a recent explicit lesbian romp featuring the two of them has attracted great excitement, while Miss D chose to celebrate the completion of her doctorate by getting several of her colleagues to kidnap her and subject her to waterboarding and "interrogation". It was, she reports, "the most amazing experience in my scene life so far". Mistress Switch was a particularly sadistic interrogator, by all accounts, leaving her victim "totally broken". Perhaps "Kiera" should watch her back.
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Everything I've Learned about Spanking

When the Max Mosley "Nazi orgy with hookers" story first broke I scarcely noticed it. Lacking much interest in sadomasochistic orgies, Nazi or otherwise, never having heard of Max Mosley (or, come to that, the FIA: I imagined that motorsport was run entirely by Bernie Ecclestone), and not being a regular reader of the News of the World the fuss barely registered on my radar screen. But then, a few weeks later, came something that did interest me: the revelation that one of the women involved - the very one who sold the story to the Screws, moreover - was married to an MI5 officer. I wondered how much I could find out about her, and the circumstances involved. Was there a grand conspiracy? Who really set Mosley up? What kind of truths, all these weeks later, were still out there?

Cherchez les femmes quickly became my watchword. I searched - and found. No smoking gun, no conspiracies (I lacked Lord Stevens' resources or expertise), but I did discover fascinating details about the women involved in the case. What I found overturned completely all my preconceptions. It may also, in retrospect, have skewed my moral compass.

The process of tracking down the women, originally fuelled by pure, prurient curiosity, slowly changed into something else as I learned more about the world they inhabit and about the women themselves. I pursued them through a network of message-boards, blogs and obscure fetish sites. I learned a new vocabulary, of CP and BDSM, of pro-dommes and submissives, of munches, judicials and paddles. I hung out in deviant chatrooms. I have seen enough photographs of striped, enflamed, bruised and scarred backsides to last several lifetimes. I was never remotely turned on; yet bizarre, disturbing images, which must appear inherently abusive, began to appear normal, even banal. I found this disquieting. But whatever my final thoughts about their lifestyle I have over the past weeks developed a respect and, strange though it sounds, an affection for the women who, for whatever reason, choose it.

What at first seemed to be an undifferentiated group of "hookers" turned out to be anything but. There was the outwardly respectable middle-aged divorcee with a head for figures and an allegedly "dynamite" contacts book; the young glamour model struggling to raise her child alone; the ultra-bright graduate student who craved polyglot humiliation and the firm thwack of a hairbrush; the German with an enigmatic past and hair as dark and lustrous as polished obsidian; and, of course, the villainess, the arch-deceiver, spanking's own Mata Hari, who owned and ran a fully-equipped dungeon in old Milton Keynes. Far from obscure, they were stars in their limited firmament, with an adoring fanbase. Like proper celebrities, they even did their bit for charity.


The treacherous Mistress Abi, who can now be pictured. They're calling her "Michelle"

Whether or not one chooses to use the word "prostitute" of such women is a difficult question (even among themselves), and to some extent an artificial one. At one level, they are obviously providing "sexual services" in exchange for money, even though the services rarely include penetrative sex (and if sex does occur, it is a freely-given extra, on the woman's terms). But in other respects they are most unlike prostitutes, even highly-paid call girls, whose whole raison d'être is to earn money through sex. With the spankees and dominatrices of the corporal punishment (CP) scene, even if spanking is their career (and it usually isn't) it is above all a personal need, an outward expression of inner compulsion. And, indeed, it's hard to see how it could be otherwise. Being hurt for money sounds like the most abject degradation: yet these women are not degraded. They do it because that is who they are. If they aren't paid to be spanked, they offer themselves up for free. And if they can't find anyone willing to do if for free, they may even pay.

Another awkward question raised for some by the professional BDSM scene concerns the political (and, indeed, moral) ramifications of the infliction of pain in exchange for money. Whether or not it is "prostitution", whether or not it is consensual, is it inherently abusive? This is something that particularly troubles feminists. Kit Roskelly, herself an S&M Submissive and self-declared feminist, puts the problem this way in an article posted on The F Word:

While people of every orientation and gender are involved in BDSM, the scenes in which heterosexual couples interact, and particularly those in which a woman takes the submissive role, are of particular interest in the context of female sexuality. In taking on control of a female submissive during scenes, dominant men appear to be enacting all that is worst about male privilege and control. The use of tying and restraints, physical punishment and sexual domination, all ring alarm-bells for the feminist viewer.

Roskelly's own answer to this question stresses - as do all apologists for BDSM of any variety - the paramount importance of consent. But some feminists - sharing in this (and not for the only time) the views of the distinctly non-feminist journalists at the Mail - find this less than convincing. And where money changes hands, the "punishment" of a female submissive seems to go beyond the ritualisation of the assumed patriarchal dominance in wider society and to depend on it directly. After all, those paying, whether to spank or to be spanked, or merely to watch the spanking, are overwhelmingly men. They have the money - and therefore, if you accept the feminist analysis, they also have the power.

As "Prime Rib" put it in a comment on CIF, "He [MM] assaulted women (yes, they were prostitutes - so what?). Since when did handing money over excuse violence? What about their 'feelings?' What about their health and safety?... " When I put it to her that the women were consenting and in any case were doing it for their own enjoyment as much as Mosley's, she described my point of view as "bullcrap":

Personally, I find S&Mers largely comic, sad and only rarely disturbing. But that's because they're still a subset of oddballs. Normalise, and the 'boundaries' become far less defined. Too many men (and some women) have 'issues.' Licence to express them sexually, for money, is a recipe for abuse.

Such an argument seems to me to be based on dogma rather than experience, and strikingly similar to arguments made forty years ago against the legalisation of gay sex: that the young and vulnerable would be taken advantage of, or that normalising something deviant will damage society more widely. Yet I cannot dismiss it entirely, and - picking up hints here and there - it seems clear that despite a strongly expressed attachment to the principle of consent the potential for abuse remains. I found this blog comment, for example, by a professional spank model - one of the best in the business:

But when is play not so good for the sub? I guess when what he or she receives is not at all what she was expecting (and is not a slave and so has a right to complain about this) and is really rather damaged from the whole experience both physically and mentally. I have seen (and been subjected to once or twice) the result of bad play and it can really do bad things to both your psyche and your posterior!

What all this emphasises, of course, is the centrality of trust and personal relationships. In an interesting post, Adele Haze (another leading light of the Scene, who was not directly involved in the case) compared herself and her fellow spankees to geishas whose position is, perhaps, similarly anomalous. Among ten points she raised, she mentioned that "both a geisha and a spanking model compete for attention of a relatively small group of people". This, I think, is key. It's a small community of about 20-30 girls who know each other, go to the same parties, show up in the same films and on the same specialist websites, and who therefore put a high premium on trust. It seems far removed from the seedy, anonymous, soulless world of commercial sex. Eady J alluded to this element when he wrote in his judgement,

I was told that there is a fairly tight-knit community of S and M activists on what is known as “the scene” and that it is an unwritten rule that people are trusted not to reveal what has gone on. That is hardly surprising....It is alleged against the woman in question (known as “Woman E”) that she breached that trust and that the journalist concerned must have appreciated that she was doing so.

The judge further quotes a text message sent by Miss A to Max Mosley soon after the News of the World exposé

“ … our scene is based on complete trust and complete discretion. However one of my so called close friends dominatrix [Woman E] has betrayed that confidence by doing what she has done. I am devastated by this act of pure total selfish greed, she has no morals, no integrity, no loyalty, complete disregard to others, cruel, and she is a liar!!! No one … deserves this invasion of privacy.”

Everything that I have learned confirms this impression. Ethics matters to these people. Miss A spoke in court of the "family atmosphere" that bound the women together - and their clients, too, with whom they often come to form close relationships. Although, as in all extended families, there are also quarrels, rivalries and feuds. One important distinction would seem to be between "pro-dommes", mistresses doing it just for the money, and "genuine players", who do it for love. Identifying Mistress Abi as a purely mercenary dominatrix enabled some on the scene to put her betrayal into some kind of context. Yet other pro-dommes retort that confidentiality is just as important to them as to anyone else, and Abi's behaviour wasn't their fault. Who knows when, or whether, the breach will be healed?

The Scene is, as it is designed to be, a world of mirrors, in which real identities are submerged behind false names and, occasionally, fictitious details. This serves as a buffer between the scene and the mundane, or "vanilla" world, which is perceived as being potentially threatening. There is a fear that with exposure would come consequences, a sense that the world as a whole, or at least the powers that control it, represent a threat to their lifestyle, to their jobs and to their relationships. With that fear comes also solidarity, a desire to protect each other's security and, when need arises, to circle the wagons.

One important aspect of this security concerns names. "Scene names" are carefully chosen. Sometimes, they will have purely theatrical connotations - "Mistress Switch", for example - and will therefore give no indication as to the actual identity of the person behind the name. Others will resemble real names, but not be. Similarly, clients will tend to use pseudonyms - Max was "Mike", for example - even where their real names are known to their closest confederates. As far as I can tell, that element of confidentiality has so far been largely preserved. Certainly the "real" identities of the women are not easy (though not impossible) to uncover.

The need for trust - and the close personal relationships that this entails - thus exists in tension with circumspection. The girls on the Scene, and their largely male clientelle, are bound together not just by a shared enthusiasm for spanking but through fear of the consequences of exposure. It is this delicate balance that the Max Mosley case has upset. Above all, it was the action of "Woman E" - a professional dominatrix and a close friend of at least one of the four other women in the case - that has sent shockwaves through the community. The sense of betrayal is still raw. Adele Haze, for example, writes on her blog that the affair has left her "numb with anger". She had come to know the scene as a place of trust and safety, "a benevolent, friendly world of kinky humans". E's actions had destroyed all that:

This is why it was such a blow to me that the betrayal of my colleagues (and Max, their client) came not from a mustachioed spy creeping into a dodgy spanking party, but a woman they considered one of their own. This alone was hard to take in, and I still struggle to understand what has to go through the mind of a woman who throws away all relationships, connections and friendships in the scene, gleefully pushing five people off the cliff...

I couldn’t begin to equate my distress to the daily anguish suffered by the girls and Max. I’m safe and well here behind my computer screeen. And yet, the profound disappointment in my scene is looking to haunt me for a long time. I don’t see being able to walk into a spanking party without guessing who is going to betray everybody present.

Shortly after the MM affair went public, one of the leading organising figures on the British corporal punishment scene, Lucy McLean, sent a round-robin email urging her spank-buddies not to blog about the incident, to protect the women involved. She feared that they might lose their jobs or even the custody of their children if their true identities were exposed. The embargo was adhered to until the case concluded last week. By a bitter irony, however, it was McLean herself who was to suffer most.

Together with her husband Paul Kennedy, Lucy runs the Glasgow-based Northern Spanking site, where CP enthusiasts can pay to watch videos of their favourite models being spanked. Four of the five Mosley women were regular or occasional performers in NS productions - indeed, it was owing to a prior engagement shooting for them that Woman D was unable to take part in the first of Max's two parties in March. As a result of these connections, NS came to the attention of a reporter who, unable to find out much about the Mosley affair itself, decided to expose Lucy and Paul instead. The ensuing publicity cost Paul his job and the couple most of their income. There's not a great deal of money in online spanking, it would appear. "It has always been a labour of love for both of us," says Lucy.

In a comment which sums up a general feeling on the scene, Lucy proclaims, "The fact that these animals are allowed to completely ruin people's lives under the guise of "public interest" and "freedom of press" is abominable and must be stopped."

The moment the dangers of exposure really hit home to me, however, came when I discovered the identity of Miss D. Like the Mail a few months later, I had been fascinated to learn of her double life - research scientist by day, professional spank model by night. Her well-written and fascinating blog (now, for whatever reason, defunct) became, for me, a window into a world of which I had hitherto had no knowledge. She came across as open, candid, brave, likeable and popular, with many friends and a positive approach to life. So open was she, indeed, that I began to rue my earlier pursuit of her and (hypocritically, perhaps) became genuinely annoyed that the Mail had, if anything, gone further (and, of course, a national newspaper must be far more dangerous to her anonymity than a relatively obscure blog). And then I found out her real name, the names of her colleagues and supervisors, and the name of the institution to which she was attached. Suddenly it seemed a lot less funny. If anything I wrote contributed to her problems then I am truly sorry.

So what have I learned? Firstly, more than I ever wanted or needed to about the milieu in which Max Mosley moved undetected for more than 40 years. It's an intimate society with rules and conventions, and one that operates at several levels. There are basically three interconnecting circles: and the Mosley women operated in all three. There are the private appointments - "1-2-1" sessions and small, confidential parties, at which the first rule is absolute discretion. It was such a gathering that was successfully infiltrated by the News of the World back in March. But there are also larger, more public assemblies, which are all ticket affairs including fairly elaborate theatrical tableaux.

It emerged in court that Miss A used to arrange such events in Euston, with financial backing from Max Mosley himself. As described in the newspapers, these were orgies where "up to 30 men pay around £200 to have sex with ten women in a stage-like setting". This led the Telegraph's Kevin Garside to note that "having a financial interest in a tawdry sex den in Euston... is of a different order of perversion" which might have been even more damaging to Mosley's reputation that the goings-on in Chelsea. I've seen photos from similar parties, and they do indeed seem fairly uninhibited; but apart from the odd bit of fondling the only "sexual acts" were being performed on stage between the women. And this account of such a party by a regular participant makes it sound like an S&M version of speed dating:

there was not really enough time to enjoy the CP from all the guys as we had to rush to the next and the next (and so on)....and the implements and caning was particularly speedy (kinda like speed spanking). I felt a little rude asking the guys to come over quickly and do their stuff at speed, particularly as I did not feel I had spent enough time with some of them, however that is the nature of a large party and I have to hope that the guys there understood that.

(Bisexuality would seem to be a near-universal trait among spankees. As Eady J commented at para 121 (getting a little hot under his robes, or so it seems to me), "although the Claimant's sexual activity as revealed in the DVD material did not seem to amount to very much, some of the women stayed on after the party was over and indulged in same sex action purely for their own entertainment.")

The third level is that of the websites and specialist films. There's an obvious overlap here between BDSM and more "mainstream" varieties of porn, much of which features S&M scenarios. But the differences are equally striking, such as the fact that most spanking films do not feature explicit sex; or the fact that almost all the girls who appear in films or on websites are also available for private bookings and attend the above-mentioned parties. Or the fact, admitted by Adele Haze, that physical attractiveness is not always a prerequisite for the women in the films.

The second thing that became overwhelmingly apparent was the strong sense of community and fellow-feeling that exists in the spanking world, and BDSM generally. The Mosley affair threatened them, and they responded partly by closing ranks, and partly by standing firmly behind Max in his fight. He became an unlikely hero; and the women who gave evidence, braving exposure, had at least the consolation of strong support from their network of friends and colleagues. Whether the Scene will re-emerge unchanged, and whether the four women will continue to play their formerly prominent roles within it, it's probably too early to tell. In some ways, its denizens will be safer after the judge's explicit acknowledgement of people's right to conduct their personal sex lives in private. But the fear of exposure will remain; as the case of Paul and Lucy has confirmed, being outed as an S&M practitioner still puts your life and career at risk. And while many ordinary people may take a more tolerant line than the News of the World, or indeed the Daily Mail, the BDSM community remains one of the few against which explicit discrimination is still legal.

The other thing I learned was about myself. I'm not into spanking. Honestly.

© 2008 Heresy Corner, all rights reserved. Read the rest of this article

Chelsea Girls

Saturday's Daily Mail carried a typically unbalanced and exploitative exposé of the women involved in the Max Mosley affair, especially Miss D. One particular quote, attributed to "a blog", regarding Mistress Switch's contacts book, was not mine but rather my translation of an article that appeared in a French magazine. I have no idea whether or not her contacts book is "dynamite"; but if other people in high-profile or influential roles attend her parties or meet her on a private basis, then so far as I'm concerned that is no-one's business but theirs. Read the rest of this article

Secrets of the Chelsea Basement

I have decided (10/7/08) to reinstate this item, since most of the details came out in court anyway. But, mindful of legal constraints, I have deleted full names and the photos that previously appeared.

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Max Mosley, FIA president and son of famous fascist Oswald, has been in a spot of trouble recently, ever since the News of the World exposed his unconventional sexual preferences at the end of March. He was, so they claimed, "a secret sado-masochist sex pervert", who engaged in "a depraved NAZI-STYLE orgy in a torture dungeon" - helpfully caught on film by one of the five "hookers" who participated in the event, staged in a Chelsea basement flat.

There were calls for him to resign (so far he has resisted) and widespread revulsion. But Mosley has fought back, hiring an ex-Screws editor Phil Hall to do his PR, and current Screws columnist Lord (John) Stevens to investigate the circumstances behind the sting. In his defence, Mosley denied that there was an overt Nazi theme in any of the role-play, stressed that it was in any case his own private business what he got up to, and alleged that he was the victim of a conspiracy.

It's not entirely clear whether or not it was Lord Stevens' company, Quest, that outed the 38-year old blonde who shopped Max to the NotW as the wife of an MI5 agent. But this latest development certainly adds to the intrigue. At the very least, it is a severe embarrassment to the intelligence service, who are supposed to have vetting procedures to prevent this sort of thing. While the man himself - unnamed for "security reasons", though his identity is well-known to the press - was fully aware that his wife of just over a year maintained a fully-equipped 2-storey dungeon in Milton Keynes, he had, it seems, neglected to inform his employers. And they, we are told, had no idea. "We expect high standards of behaviour from all staff at all times, both professionally and privately" said a spokesman, primly. According to other reports that I have found, on the other hand, the agent made no secret of his wife's professional activities, and even boasted about her to colleagues. Make of that what you will. [Indeed, much of this speculation was confirmed by a report subsequently published in the Mail on Sunday - 10/7/08]

Personally, I would far rather MI5 spent their time monitoring terrorists than prying into people's sex lives. On the other hand, it's hard to see precisely why having a wife who spanks middle-aged gentlemen in her basement should be a bar to serving one's country. It might, in fact, be a positive advantage, given the intelligence that might be gleaned in such a situation. Was it just that he didn't tell them about it?

MI5, needless to say, denies that anything sinister has been going on. The idea that they might be a party to a sting operation makes no sense, they maintain, since Mosley was not a security risk and, in any case, there are more important things for them to worry about. I hope so. But did "Mistress Abi" did take the decision to run to the News of the World and pocket a large wad of their cash entirely on her own, without consulting her husband? It's hard not to think that someone somewhere has a hidden agenda. Formula One is a notoriously muky and espionage-obsessed business.

I cannot, alas, penetrate that particular mystery. But I have been able to discover more details about the private party in Chelsea and its attendees. And it seems that Mosley and his paid guests may indeed have been unfairly maligned. Of the five women, four knew each other (and Max) extremely well. The fifth - professionally known as "Mistress Abi" - seems to have been invited along at a later stage. This would seem to reduce the likelihood that Mosley was targeted "by persons and for reasons unknown", as he alleges. Unless of course someone got wind of what was in the offing and found a way to exploit it.

According to the original report in the News of the World, the "cast list" was as follows: Mistress Abi, (E) "Mistress S" (the main organiser, identified in court as A), a German dominatrix named in the News of the World, but due to legal restrictions now merely as B, and two "prisoners", described as a blonde and a brunette.

I managed to identify the two submissives, who were referred to C and D in court, and got a court order for my pains. These seem to be the only two who particpated in the sex acts, if any. (All the women involved deny being prostitutes.) Suffice it to say that both are well known in the BDSM "scene", having featured in numerous fetish and spanking videos with titles such as Prison Chronicles and Punished Brats. Both have also featured in a prison-themed S&M website which D co-founded (although she recently left due to "creative differences" with the director).

Besides her film career, the privately-educated Londoner (28) identified as D is PhD student in biochemistry (this came out in court). Her research concerns the structure and synthesis of lipids. She is also a former ballerina and rugby enthusiast, and she has even appeared in an episode of The Weakest Link. In an online interview she explained the origins of her favourite role-playing scenario:

I truly believe that the prison fantasy stems from spending many years growing up in a boarding school. If someone can name three differences between prison and boarding school I'd like to hear them. However, some inspiration, such as the use of storyline and particular characters come from TV and films based in prisons, women's prison's especially. I guess my fantasy is an exchange of power and in prison this is particularly strong. You are completely at the guard's mercy and that has always been my thing.

Miss D has her own fairly innocuous blog. Following the scandal she posted her side of the story (in an entry since deleted), explicitly denying that there was any Nazi theme to the March gathering: it was, she insisted, a bog-standard prisoner-interrogation scenario, there were no Nazi uniforms, and no orgy. Like Mosley, she insists that the Nazi elements were invented by the News of the World (or Mistress Abi) to spice up the story. The available video footage is, it must be said, ambiguous. German accents and snatches of German dialogue do not, of themselves, make a realistic concentration camp. Still, the man's name is Mosley.

Woman C is slightly younger, but is equally popular as a spankee, both in films and at parties which she organises with a friend who goes by the name of Dublin. In "real life" she works in the National Health Service. Her profile on the invaluable Northern Spanking website mentions that she "got into spanking through my glamour modelling work and one of the other girls asked me if I'd like to try it. I'd always liked a good slap on the bottom during foreplay, so I thought, why not?" She adds:

Since then I've gone strength to strength and become instatiable for spanking and all things corporal punishment. My favourite being the cane, and I love nothing more than a double caning especially when Lucy is the left handed participant!

Parties are probably my favourite thing to do because they are such a laugh, but I like doing videos and photos too - mostly because I love dressing up. It makes me feel so sexy!

The German participant B was named in the NOTW but is also subject to the court order. Her website, however (like D's, but unlike those of the two leading protagonists) is still fully functional. On it, she describes herself as 34 years old, 5'8, with natural long black hair. She adds, "my bottom enjoys a really good seeing to, and I don't mind either hand, cane or paddle." Although her main role in the Mosley affair seems to have been to bark orders in German, she says that she performs both dominant and submissive roles, but prefers submission. Elsewhere, we learn that she attended an all girls' school in Germany, and is a veteran of many S&M videos. In fact, she turns up on some of the same productions as Misses C and D. The three, together with "Mistress S" (A), took part with a number of other "scene girls" in a 2007 charity run in London for Cancer Research. They called themselves "Bums on the run", and raised almost £12,000.

B herself describes her initiation into the spanking scene as follows:

Two years ago I came to England and after a rather boozy rock and roll night we went back to my flat. I went to the kitchen to take some wine from the fridge. As I bent down to grab it my friend - Sam Johnson - slapped me across the bottom. I said: "aaaaaaa, that's great - give me more, it really turns me on"

I felt quite naughty because I enjoyed it. Sam administered a few more handspanks. I was reminded of my former school in Germany. I used to secretly like it when I had to be punished by the Headmaster who was severe.

However, in a French source she is described as having been "formed in the red-light districts of Hamburg and Cologne". In this account, it was B who brought the final line-up together, having been first contracted by "Mistress Switch", who was Mosley's only direct contact.

We now come to the two leading protagonists in this saga. Both blonde, both dominant, both aged around 40, both apparently hailing from Milton Keynes, and possibly both calling themselves Abi, they are rather difficult to separate. It took a while to work out which was Switch. While they clearly aren't the same person (they both featured in the NotW video, after all) the confusion between them may be either accidental or deliberate.

Mistress Switch, the overseer of the whole proceeding, is described as a divorced 40-year old mother of two from Milton Keynes. ("Switch", by the way, is a term used in BDSM for a mistress who performs both dominant and submissive roles in a single session. Woman A claims to be London's leading exponent of the technique.) Her website no longer works, but could be accessed via an internet archive. Elsewhere, she reveals that she has been in the spanking business for around 15 years and has appeared in a number of films with the other girls. In her "vanilla" life she runs an office. According to press reports, she is the ex-wife of a business associate of Mosley's, which is how they were introduced, and she has been arranging sex parties for him for a number of years. According to a rather gossipy French account (which I have attempted to translate), following her divorce,

She reinvented herself as a priestess. She became Madame Perversion for the whole of London. Her client-book is dynamite. It causes terror in government departments and the most secret offices in Whitehall. Happily, Mistress Switch is a prudent woman... She had already worked for [Mosley], who has frequented many S&M dugeons in Mayfair. She recognised in him a guilty neurotic who needed to be punished: but until this moment he had not confessed to her the original sin which obsessed him. Then towards the end of March, his instructions became more precise, constituting a confession in themselves...

Mistress Switch ("I'm Abi if I'm being naughty and cheeky, Mistress Switch if I have the upper hand and feeling, dare I say, sadistic") is reported to have her own palace of perversity at her Milton Keynes residence, trading under the name The House of Whispers. However, it is the woman billed as "Mistress Abi" (E), who is the 38-year old wife of the MI5 officer, who would seem to be the true proprietress of that particular dungeon. It was revealed in court that until they fell out spectacularly over the Max Mosley business, the two dominatrices sometimes shared facilities at the house. Although her website has also shut down as a result of the scandal (and has been blocked even from the archives), elsewhere on the net this "Mistress Abi" describes her services in considerable detail.

I am a tall, beautiful, strict, demanding, bi-sexual Dominatrix, the kind you've always dreamt about. I expect total obedience and discretion from those who wish to serve me in my private chambers. I get genuine pleasure from having submissives totally under my control, helpless for me to do with as I please. I am always dressed in boots or high heels, rubber, leather or PVC and have a very active and sadistic imagination, making your servitude both a fulfilling and exciting experience... I get a huge thrill from having a slave (male or female) completely submitting to me, completely and willingly under my control, able to go to subspace, able to test their limits.

Originally from Birmingham, "Mistress Abi" is another former boarding-school girl. And here was me thinking it was only boys' public schools which led to this kind of thing. In a photo I will not reproduce even here, Abi is using her stiletto (very successfully, it appears) to stimulate the reproductive member of an anonymous and headless client. However, she stresses that she operates a strict no-sex policy.

Interestingly, Abi lists "blackmail" as one of the many dominatrix services she offers, between "anal training" and "bondage (suspension)".

It was "Mistress Abi" who was fitted up with secret cameras by the News of the World after offering the paper an exclusive. According to some accounts, she was wearing a "Luftwaffe-style uniform"; others insist that it was simply a leather jacket. Her photo gallery certainly features (or used to feature) a range of military uniforms, but none of them are overtly Nazi.

In fact, and perhaps not surprisingly, Mistress Abi has made herself extremely unpopular with her fellow sub-doms. One colleague, Amy, called her "a callous “pro” domme who has gone against everything the scene’s professionals stand for, namely trust, discretion, and integrity." Apparently, too, some in the scene believed the Nazi stories and did not approve, so all those involved have suffered from the taint. Which makes it all the more unfair if it was just your average spankathon.


Sex, spies, Formula 1, le vice anglais: this story is British tabloid entertainment at its very best. Yet it also raises some serious issues. Whatever one thinks of Max Mosley's predilections (and whatever the precise nature of those predilections) are they, should they be, enough to destroy his reputation and career? He is not a politician. He didn't hurt anybody. True, he has a wife, who may or may not have been aware of his unusual tastes. But how she chooses to react to the embarrassing situation in which she finds herself is her business. And falling foul of tabloid morality (especially the morality represented by the News of the World) is not, yet, a criminal offence. Although the way this government has been going recently, it might soon be.

Compare and contrast another recent News of the World exposé: that of the Conservative peer Lord Laidlaw, who was revealed to be in the habit of flying parties of prostitutes to Monaco for champagne-fuelled "romps". That quickly blew over. But then Laidlaw reacted like a much younger celeb: he issued a statement blaming his behaviour on "sex addiction" and appealed for sympathy. It's a fair cop, he seemed to be saying; and his openness was rewarded with forgeiveness. Mosley's reaction was more old-fashioned, and dignified.

Is it the "Nazi" dimension? Let's assume the worst, that Mosley gets his kicks from acting out Third Reich scenarios. There may be deep psychological reasons for this, stemming from his family background. Perhaps he feels overwhelming guilt, which is assuaged by acting out the role of a concentration camp inmate. Perhaps he just likes being assailed by women in uniform. As Bryan Ferry pointed out some time ago, the Nazis knew a thing or two about style. Ferry got into trouble for his comments. And it may be that Mosley has simply fallen foul of this ultimate modern taboo.

All the same, I can't help wondering who else is in Mistress Switch's "dynamite" client book.

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