Mosley shot himself dead after hearing he was dying of cancer
FORMER F1 boss Max Mosley shot himself dead after hearing his cancer was terminal, an inquest heard yesterday.
The president of motorsport’s FIA governing body from 1993 to 2009 was found last May aged 81.
He had been told that he had just weeks to live, and his chronic bladder and bowel pain would lessen with palliative care but could not be cured.
His housekeeper in Chelsea, west London, rang 999 after fearing for his welfare. Police found Mr Mosley on his bed with “significant injuries consistent with a gunshot wound”.
The son of wartime fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley held a firearms licence and kept four guns at home.
Long-time personal assistant Henry Alexander told Westminster Coroner’s
Court that he entered the house via the housekeeper’s basement flat after 8am, following messages from Mr Mosley the night before telling him he planned to “end it all”.
He had been out for a “final dinner” with his wife Jean.
Mr Alexander said he rang Mr Mosley but the call went to voicemail: “I went upstairs and there was a note attached to the door.
“He had an aggressive form of cancer and had been down.
“He said he’d had enough.” Mr Mosley was diagnosed with lymphoma in 2019 and Dr Rasha Al-Qurainy, a consultant in palliative care at the Central and North West London NHS Trust, was treating him.
She said the ex-racing driver had a poor prognosis as the B-cell lymphoma was inoperable, but she had not seen signs he might harm himself. “He was still seeking treatment,” she said.
Dr Christopher McNamara, consultant haematologist, had been treating Mosley for lymphoma since October 2019.
He said there was a “shift” last April, from treating it aggressively to trying to improve “quality of life”.
Mr Mosley had talked about suicide with him but not in detail. Dr McNamara added: “His quality of life was poor.”
A qualified barrister, Mr Mosley called for stricter control of the media after the News of the World published footage of him at a sadomasochistic orgy with five prostitutes in 2008.
It was alleged in 2018 he had published a racist leaflet backing his father’s Union Movement in a 1961 by-election, linking non-white immigrants with STIs and leprosy.
Mr Mosley said he did not “recognise” the leaflet.
His parents Sir Oswald and Lady Diana married in 1936 in Germany, with Adolf Hitler a guest of honour.
The inquest continues.