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Court told 'unnaturally loud' sex was hell for neighbours

By Rod Minchin

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

A BRITISH couple's nightly sex sessions were so loud they made their neighbours' lives hell, a court has heard.

Caroline and Steve Cart-wright's lovemaking was described as "murder" and "unnatural" and drowned out their neighbours' televisions. But it was not just the neighbours who were up in arms about the noise coming from their terraced house on Tyne and Wear – even the local postman and a woman who walked past the house taking her child to school complained.

A judge at Newcastle Crown Court even listened to a 10-minute recording of the romps, recorded over a five-day period last August.

Neighbours said the sex sessions would usually start at about midnight and last for two or three hours, every night of the week.

Ms Cartwright is appealing her conviction for breaching a noise abatement notice that banned the couple from "shouting, screaming or vocalisation at such a level as to be a statutory nuisance". She is using article 8 of the Human Rights Act to argue that she has a right to "respect for her private and family life".

Next-door neighbourRachel O'Connor said she was frequently late for work because she had overslept, having been awake most of the night due to the noise.

"It is not very pleasant living there and it has been quite stressful," she told the court. "The noise sounds like they are both in considerable pain. I cannot describe the noise. Totally excessive and I have never ever heard anything like it. I put my telly in my bedroom on as loud as it could go and they drown it out."

Giving evidence, Ms Cartwright, 48, who is unemployed, said she was unable to control the noise she made during sex and it was not "on purpose".

She said the stress of the complaints made her turn to drink and she was now on antidepressants.

"After I got the noise abatement notice I tried to control it. I even tried to use a pillow [over my face] to try and lessen the noise," she said. "I wasn't enjoying it so I started to cry and my husband said, 'If you want to make a noise, make a noise.'

"I did not understand why people asked me to be quiet because to me it is normal."

She said she "tried to minimise the situation by having sex in the morning" so the noise was "not waking anybody".

The hearing was adjourned until today.



This story appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Read more: http://www.irishexaminer.com/archives/2009/1110/ireland/court-told-unnaturally-loud-sex-was-hell-for-neighbours-105251.html#ixzz0WTqQTzKa