NINE men and one woman were naked inside a house used for sex parties when Salisbury police raided the property, a court has heard.

Number 22 Avon Terrace, owned by convicted sex offender Ricardo Harwood, was shut down on May 5 after the council received numerous complaints of antisocial behaviour, noise and parking over a long period of time.

Now it will remain closed for at least three more months, a court has ruled.

It came after the police raided the house amid concerns of prostitution and sexual exploitation, but found no evidence of either at the time.

Today Salisbury Magistrates Court heard that Harwood had owned the property since 1983 and been throwing parties for "thirty-odd" years.

His website donkeydicksparties.com was for "alternative lifestyle parties for adults" and "members of the swinging community".

Harwood said it was "basically adults in their forties, whose kids have grown up and left home and they like to go to alternative parties" and they were "very usually from the higher end, right down to the lower end".

He said he held parties every Thursday and every other Saturday but he had already planned to stop Thursdays as "obviously I'm retiring now".

Thursdays normally lasted a few hours but Saturdays ran from about 8.30pm to 3am.

"They were two totally different types of party," he said. "Saturday nights were theme nights."

"On Thursdays somebody would contact us wanting to meet quite a few other people. They give us instructions and we follow them.

"Usually a husband and wife will talk about what they want and sometimes the husband might want to see the wife having pleasure with more than one person."

PC Tracy Holloway confirmed that when police raided, 11 men, including Harwood and his doorman, and one woman left the property.

All of the nine male guests and the woman were completely naked, the court heard.

Harwood said his parties "allowed people to meet other like-minded people behind closed doors" and "if they click, there are private rooms for people to go into, but you don't get to see it."

Some of the double rooms have windows so people can watch, the court heard.

Harwood said people came from Ireland, France, Birmingham, London, Hull and Leeds.

He said his guests wouldn't affect the street parking as he had an agreement with Spire Tire & Auto Ltd that they could use his car park in the day if his guests could use theirs on "party nights".

He also said the CCTV cameras were "dummy cameras" that he got to scare kids off from damaging cars, at £5 a camera on eBay.

Harwood, who was jailed for six-and-a-half years in 2002 after admitting living off prostitution, procuring women under 21 to have unlawful sexual intercourse, possessing an offensive weapon and perverting the course of justice, said the allegations from his neighbours were "a total load of lies".

Salisbury Journal:

The front page of the Salisbury Journal in 2002, when Harwood was jailed for exploiting vulnerable, underage girls.

Among the claims he rejected were that a man was seen "running naked around the garden with his penis in his hand" and that a couple had been witnessed having sex in a hot tub in his garden.

When asked if children had ever stayed in the property, he said: "I have had other people staying, so it might have been something to do with them".

Another neighbour said he'd seen a couple having sex in Blackwell Mews car park, but Harwood said: "I've never heard anything, and if there was I would expect that person to get some picture evidence and report it to the police. That doesn't mean they have come from my place."

Sentencing him, magistrate Mrs C Smith said: "We do understand that there is sexual behaviour that seems offensive to some people, but it's between consenting adults and we don't want to interfere with that.  

"We are satisfied that there has been a serious nuisance. We do consider a community protection notice should have been made in the first instance, however we are where we are."

Magistrates awarded £1,000 costs to Wiltshire Council.

Rowena Lansdown, public protection officer from Wiltshire Council welcomed the court's decision.

"This sends a clear message to the community that appropriate action will be taken where antisocial behaviour is experienced.

"I would urge all residents in Avon Terrace to continue to report any further nuisances or antisocial behaviour they experience."

Acting Inspector Sarah Mackett of Salisbury Police said: “We are pleased with the result today.

"We hope that the closure will provide residents with some respite from the issues that they have been experiencing.

"We will continue to monitor the situation going forward and take action where appropriate.”