Woman given Asbo over loud sex spared jail

A WOMAN given an Asbo for having sex too loudly with her husband has escaped a prison sentence after admitting breaching the order within days of it being imposed.

Caroline and Steve Cartwright’s sex life was so loud that the local postman and a woman taking her child to school complained about the noise.

Cartwright, 48, was first hit with a noise abatement notice. The tougher Asbo, ordering her to quieten down in the bedroom, was imposed when she breached that. Almost immediately after the order was imposed she breached it and then failed in an appeal to have it overturned.

Jobless Cartwright used Article 8 of the Human Rights Act to argue she had a right to “respect for her private and family life”. She also claimed she could not help making the loud noise during sex at her home in Tyne and Wear, north-east England.

Neighbours said the Cartwrights’ sex sessions would usually start around midnight and last for two or three hours, every night of the week. The couple’s love-making was described as “murder” and “unnatural” and it drowned out neighbours’ televisions.

Specialist equipment installed in a neighbour’s flat by Sunderland City Council recorded noise levels of between 30 to 40 decibels, with the highest being 47.

At an earlier hearing Cartwright said she was unable to control the noise she made during sex.

“I did not understand why people asked me to be quiet because to me it is normal,” she said. “It is not something I am doing on purpose.”

The judge imposed eight weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months.

“It needs to be a prison sentence because you need to be deterred,” he said, adding that if Cartwright commits further offences of this nature, she will serve the sentence.