A woman who was slapped with an Asbo over her noisy lovemaking has lost an appeal against the order. Caroline Cartwright, 48, and her husband Steve, were hit with a noise abatement notice after neighbours, the local postman and a woman taking her child to school complained about them shouting and screaming during sex sessions.

When Mrs Cartwright was convicted of breaching the notice, magistrates made her subject of an anti-social behaviour order as well. She appealed against a conviction for breaching the abatement notice and the Asbo, which bans the couple from "shouting, screaming or vocalisation at such a level as to be a statutory nuisance".

Jobless Mrs 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 that she could not help making the loud noise during sex with her husband.

But Newcastle Crown Court threw out the appeal after neighbours told how the Cartwright nightly sex sessions drowned out their televisions.

Neighbours said the Cartwrights would usually start making love at their flat in Washington, Tyne and Wear, around midnight and would go on for two or three hours.

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 decibels.

Giving evidence, Mrs Cartwright said: "I did not understand why people asked me to be quiet because to me it is normal. I didn't understand where they were coming from.

"I have tried to minimise the situation by having sex in the morning - not at night - so the noise was not waking anybody. I may be sympathetic to it but it is not something I am doing on purpose."

Recorder Jeremy Freedman, sitting with two magistrates, said: "We do not find there is any infringement of her human rights in any shape or form."