A COUPLE told of their relief last night after winning a 25-year battle against a theme park to turn the volume down.

Stephen and Suzanne Roper brought an unprecedented private prosecution against Alton Towers, in Staffordshire, whose land borders their property in the village of Farley.

The Ropers said noise of the rides and the screams from thrill-seekers had made their lives a nightmare.

Late-night fireworks displays, concerts and corporate weekends that involved discos and loud public address systems, as well as traffic, had contributed to their misery.

At Stafford Crown Court yesterday, District Judge Timothy Gascoigne found the attraction's owner, Tussaud's Theme Parks, guilty of statutory noise nuisance under the 1990 Environmental Protection Act.

The judge did not serve a noise abatement order on the park yesterday but has scheduled a hearing in November to hear submissions about the detail of any such order should it be served.