The legacy of three gangster brothers who built a criminal empire and used violence to control their territory by "any means necessary" continues to haunt their home city.
The notorious Noonan family held a fearsome grip on the local underworld for almost two decades as they went from security work to armed robbery, to selling drugs. Damien, Dessie and Dominic Noonan grew up in Whalley Range, Manchester, in a family of 14 siblings, with the trio specialising in armed robbery.
Dessie and Damien worked in security for clubs including the Hacienda in their native Manchester, but turned to drug dealing as a means of making more money. They were said to be making £50,000 a night from the Hacienda at its peak.
The Noonans became "synonymous with violence", according to one former Greater Manchester Police officer, and were rumoured to be linked to more than 24 murders, reports The Manchester Evening News.
A decade later, the pair's reign of terror finally came to an end. Damien was killed in a motorbike accident in 2003. Then, in March 2005, Dessie was stabbed to death by a crack cocaine dealer.
Dominic was jailed for 11 years in 2018 after being found guilty of 13 historical sex offences against four young boys, aged as young as 10, having taken over as the head of the family after his brothers' deaths.Yet despite the brothers' reign coming to an end, violence still plagued their old haunts through their younger family.
Nephew's death sparks nationwide riots
After Mark Duggan was shot dead by police in London on August 4, 2011, riots broke out in cities including Manchester and Salford, with looters causing millions of pounds worth of damage and loss to shops.
One of the suspected ringleaders of the disorder in the city centre was Dominic Noonan, a man who had his own personal connections to Duggan, who was the nephew of his brother Desmond.
The Metropolitan Police said Duggan, 29, was a member of a feared gang and had been linked to gun crime and drug dealing. He was shot dead by armed officers attempting to arrest him on suspicion of planning an attack.
Dominic Noonan was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to violent disorder after being caught on camera talking to a looter carrying a flat-screen TV during the riots and recalled to prison.
Nephew's shocking murder
In the early hours of Boxing Day 2011, student Anuj Bidve was shot dead without warning in Salford. Killer Kiaran Stapleton laughed after shooting the 23-year-old and got a tattoo marking the crime.
Stapleton was a member of the wider Noonan family. An unrelated road rage incident is said to have made him lose control and, at some point, he got hold of a gun that he used to kill Anuj.
Stapleton selected Anuj as his victim at random "because he had the biggest head", a trial at Manchester Crown Court heard.
He denied murder but pleaded guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility, claiming a personality disorder affected his self-control. However, a jury convicted him of murder, and was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years.
Son spent lottery winnings on drug deal
When his mother scooped £1m on the Euromillions, Desmond James Noonan, son of Damien, used his share of the winnings to bankroll a heroin deal. However, police had him under surveillance and arrested him and two others after picking up 250g of the drug.
In September 2013, Desmond was jailed for five years after admitting possessing heroin with intent to supply and possessing 20g of cannabis. A judge ordered he pay back £131,361, having estimated he had earned around £186,000 from his life of crime.
Dominic's son was also jailed in 2014 for his part in a £250,000 car-ringing conspiracy. Steven Warburton, also known as Bugsy Noonan, was jailed for 38 months when he was 19. He had been recorded boasting about stealing an Audi A6 in a call to a friend in jail.
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