A CONCERT pianist could be sentenced to 20 months in jail for practising too loudly.

Laia Martin, 27, was charged with noise pollution and inflicting psychological damage after a complaint from a neighbour.

Girona resident Sonia Bosom said Martin´s keyboard practice went on for eight hours a day, five days a week.

The regional prosecutor became involved when tests found Martin´s music peaked at up to 10 decibels higher than the 30-decibel limit in force for the city´s musical instruments.

The authorities asked the family to stop playing the piano, or soundproof the room, but two attempts at soundproofing failed to quash Bosom´s complaints.

The prosecutor is pushing for a 16 month sentence for the noise pollution, and a further four months for causing psychological damage.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Jail is good, if the illegal noise level music cannot be stopped per “local authorities”. I enjoy classical music (even dated a concert pianista” year ago) but local authorities HAVE to enforce the Law to protect residents’ right to peaceful life. That is why the Law is there & local authorities/police MUST enforce the Law. Fact- recently a “local authority Town Hall” was fined about .25 MILLION Euros for not enforcing the Law after 18 Residents repeatedly complianed of music noise exceeding legal limits.
    Lack of Law enforcement H U R T S!

  2. This seems insanely stupid. I don’t know about Spain, but I’ve heard of rapists getting much shorter sentences elsewhere. Why can’t they just fine her, or fine whoever controls the property? If she’s using a keyboard, she can surely reduce the volume or use headphones, but there is no need to waste jail space over it; as Christopher Alexander put it, just take the damn thing away if nothing else works.

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