Noisy Sex Gets Woman in Trouble

Caroline Cartwright, 48, really enjoys having sex with her husband, Steve, just ask her neighbors how enthusiastic she can be. Caroline is a screamer and she doesn't care who hears her. After hundreds of complaints from the neighbors and passers-by (even the local postman and a woman taking her child to school complained about the levels of noise) she was ordered by the court to stop disturbing the peace under an anti-social behavior order (ASBO).

It was an order she broke at least three times in just 10 days, landing her in jail and back in court. Caroline just can't understand what all the fuss is about.

"I did not understand why people asked me to be quiet because to me it is normal," she said. I have tried to minimize the situation by having sex in the morning - not at night - so the noise was not waking anybody," Cartwright noted.

After a series of complaints, the local council's Environmental Health department placed recording equipment in a neighbor's apartment. The neighbor, Rachel O’Connor, pressed a button on the machine every time she was disturbed by noise from next door.  In the subsequent 23 recordings that were made - through a soundproofed wall - and played to the court, the sound of slapping and screaming was clearly audible.

“I heard sounds of a sexual nature, they were really loud, and there was a lot of moaning and groaning and screaming as if in pain. It wasn’t just the woman, it came from both parties,” said Rachel O’Connor.

The equipment recorded noise levels of 30-40 decibels, peaking at 47 - as loud as a conversation in the same room. The 48-year-old Caroline acknowledged she made noises, but wasn't aware how loud she had been. The judge, in giving her a break, said she had not tried hard enough to refrain from making excessive noise.

"It's quite clear from the small extract I heard that you made no attempt to silence yourself," the judge said.

He stressed that if she disturbed her neighbors again with her sexual sounds, she would spend eight weeks in jail.

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