Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2009/11/10/involuntary_vocalisation/
Loud sex a human right, says loud sex woman
Appeals ASBO with 'involuntary vocalisation' defence
Posted in Bootnotes, 10th November 2009 10:13 GMT
A Tyne and Wear woman whose raucous lovemaking earned her an ASBO and multiple cuffings will declare in court that the order is a violation of her human rights.
Caroline Cartwright, 48, of Washington, was dragged before magistrates back in April for five breaches of a noise abatement order requiring her to turn down the volume during intimate moments with hubby Steve.
Neighbours described her performances as "murder" and "unnatural", the Telegraph notes, and "even the local postman and a woman, who walked past the house taking her child to school, complained".
Sunderland City Council installed "specialist equipment" in neighbour Rachel O'Connor's flat after she reported she was "frequently late for work because she overslept having been awake most of the night because of the noise".
The kit recorded noise levels of between 30 and 40 decibels, "with the highest being 47 decibels".
The court imposed the aforementioned ASBO, ordering her to stop "making excessive noise, knocking, shouting, screaming or vocalisation that can be heard in neighbouring properties or outside the house".
However, she was arrested on 18, 22 and 26 April when neighbours complained she was back on the job.
Cartwright has now appealed the four-year ASBO, on the grounds that she is "unable to control her vocalisation during lovemaking, and any attempt at restricting her behaviour is a breach of her human rights".
Newcastle Crown Court heard she will argue a breach of Article 8 of the human rights act "if her ability to have sex with her husband Steven, 48, is interfered with", as the Northern Echo puts it.
To back her case of "being powerless to control herself during lovemaking", Cartwright will call a "consultant in psychosexual medicine" to support her "involuntary vocalisation" defence. ®