Can You Be Jailed For Having Loud Sex?

Apparently so. Earlier this week, Gemma Wale from Birmingham was jailed for two weeks because she breached a court order by having noisy sex that annoyed a neighbour. 

Wale had previously been served with an anti-social behaviour order that barred her from causing a nuisance by making “loud sex noises”. She was then deemed to breach the order by “screaming and shouting whilst having sex” at a “level of noise” which annoyed a neighbour.

It’s not illegal to have consensual sex, but it is illegal to cause a nuisance. Cast your minds back to your early tort law lectures, and you’ll remember that this is indeed the case! Indeed, private nuisance is defined in Bamford v Turnley 1860 as “any continuous activity or state of affairs causing a substantial and unreasonable interference with a [claimant's] land or his use or enjoyment of that land.” The claimant, which in this case was Birmingham City Council after they received a complaint from a neighbour, needed to prove that there is continuous noise interference that results in discomfort or inconvenience.

The nuisance caused also needs to be unreasonable. Indeed, after hearing statements from a council housing officer and a neighbour, the Judge ruled that “around 5am, the defendant was guilty of screaming and shouting whilst having sex at a level of noise which caused nuisance or annoyance to (a neighbour).

“In light of the amount of breaches found, the lack of remorse and the defendant’s attendance at court literally days before half of these breaches took place, I take the view that an immediate term of imprisonment is justified on the facts of this case.”

Keep it safe and keep it down, guys!

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