Mark Duggan's uncle was crime lord: Man whose death sparked riots is linked to notorious gangland chiefs
The suspected gangster whose death sparked the nationwide riots was the nephew of a notorious crime boss who boasted his gang had ‘more guns than the police’.
It emerged yesterday that Mark Duggan’s uncle was the late Desmond ‘Dessie’ Noonan, whose feared family are ‘major players’ in Manchester’s underworld.
And in a further indication of Duggan’s gangland links, investigators said yesterday that at the time of his death he had a fully-loaded Italian-made handgun wrapped in a sock.
Notorious gangster Desmond Noonan (left) was the uncle of Mark Duggan, who was shot by police
Criminals often fire their weapons from inside a sock to avoid leaving forensic evidence and to catch cartridge cases.
Duggan is said to have regularly visited Noonan in Manchester before the crime boss was stabbed to death in 2005 at the age of 46 by a Jamaican enforcer working for the Yardie drug gangs.
The emerging picture of Duggan, 29, is at odds with his portrayal by friends and family as an innocent victim, quiet family man and respected member of the community.
He was shot dead by a police marksman in Tottenham, north London, nine days ago. He had been stopped by undercover officers as he travelled in a minicab and confronted because they believed he was on his way to ‘use the weapon’.
Rumours that he had been ‘executed’ fuelled the riots in the area last Saturday, which spawned copycat violence and looting across the country.
Yesterday the Independent Police Complaints Commission confirmed that Duggan’s weapon – a BBM ‘Bruni’ pistol containing live rounds – was hidden in a spare sock, not one he was wearing.
A man believed to be Domenyk Noonan lies face down on the ground in Manchester during the riots
A dossier on the case has been compiled by detectives from Operation Trident, which investigates gun crime within London’s black community. The files are said to outline Duggan’s suspected links to crime gangs, alleged drug dealing and his ties to the Noonan family. Noonan’s second wife Julie, 50, is the sister of Duggan’s mother Pamela.
Noonan, a 20st former nightclub bouncer who was one of 11 children whose names all begin with D, ran the family gang with three of his brothers – Domenyk, Damien and Derek.
He and Domenyk were interviewed for a television documentary in 2005 called Gangster. In it, Noonan suggested the family were untouchables, saying: ‘We have a lot of strong loyal people around us. We will always have that. If they think they can take one of us out, they are silly people. Very silly people.’
He also boasted: ‘I’ve got a bigger army than the police. We have more guns than the police.’
And at one stage during the Channel 5 documentary with journalist Donal MacIntyre, he hinted that he was responsible for 27 murders.
Flowers left at the spot in Tottenham where Mark Duggan was shot by police officers
Dublin-born Noonan dominated the Manchester underworld in the 1990s and made many appearances in court charged with violence.
In February 1991 he was implicated along with Derek and Damien in the murder of gangster ‘White Tony’ Johnson, 22.
Johnson, the leader of the rival Cheetham Hill Mob, had a gun placed in his mouth when he walked out of a pub and was shot.
The killing was thought to be part of a battle for control of the hard drugs market in Manchester.
Damien, who was killed in a motorbike accident while on holiday in 2003, was cleared of any involvement in the killing, and following a re-trial in February 1993, Noonan and Derek walked free after the jury was unable to reach a verdict.
Two years later Noonan was one of a group who left twin brothers battered and bleeding outside a nightclub. One witness described him as acting ‘like a psycho’.
He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years and nine months in jail for violent disorder and causing grievous bodily harm.
Previously, in May 1988, he had been convicted of perverting the course of justice and wounding after threatening prosecution witnesses, who were police officers, and their relatives.
Noonan joked in the Gangster documentary that key witnesses in his trials failed to turn up ‘because they are in the back of a boot tied up and they don’t know what day it is’.
Noonan, who had become addicted to crack cocaine, was killed by drug dealer Derek ‘Yardie’ McDuffus before the documentary was broadcast.
Two days after Duggan died, the Tottenham riots erupted after his family spent five frustrating hours seeking a meeting and explanation from local police chiefs
Ironically, Duggan is said to have dealt crack and been involved with Yardie gangs.
It is understood that Duggan began visiting Noonan as a three-year-old. One of his primary school teachers recalled him a few years later as a boy who carried a knife and beat up other pupils.
Boyan Yordanov, 46, said Duggan was one of the most disruptive children he had ever taught.
‘He was often attacking other children in the playground – they were all afraid of him,’ he said.
‘Once he brought a knife into school. Luckily one of the teachers discovered he had it and nothing happened – but he had to be suspended.’
Known as ‘Starrish Mark’ in recent years, Duggan was an ‘elder’, a senior member, of the The Star Gang, who strut the streets of Tottenham where such gangs trade in violence, intimidation and drugs.
Friends say Duggan was planning to marry 29-year-old Semone Wilson, pictured, his partner of 12 years, and move away from Tottenham
The Star Gang is an off-shoot of Tottenham’s notorious ‘Man dem’ crew which has links with Jamaica’s drug-dealing Yardie gangsters.
But friends say Duggan was planning to marry 29-year-old Semone Wilson, his partner of 12 years, and move away from Tottenham to raise their two sons, aged ten and seven, and 18-month-old daughter.
In recent months Duggan, who liked to be photographed wearing chunky jewellery and holding his fingers as if they were a pistol, is said to have become obsessed with the death of his cousin Kelvin Easton, 23, another gang member, in a row over drugs and a woman.
Easton was stabbed through the heart with a broken champagne bottle at a nightclub in east London last March.
Duggan is said to have become ‘paranoid’ about his own safety and carried a gun for protection.
One source said he was planning to avenge the death.
This is believed to be one of the reasons that Trident officers had Duggan under surveillance and were trailing him nine days ago in unmarked cars. At about 6pm he sent a message to Miss Wilson on his BlackBerry saying ‘the Feds are following me’.
It was the last time anyone heard from him – 15 minutes later he was dead.
The IPCC said police fired two shots. One killed Duggan, the other lodged in the radio of another police officer.
Duggan’s gun, originally thought to have been a converted replica, had not been fired and was in the spare sock.
Two days after Duggan died, the Tottenham riots erupted after his family spent five frustrating hours seeking a meeting and explanation from local police chiefs.
Then this week, in one of the many twists to the case, Domenyk Noonan was arrested by Manchester police on suspicion of violent disorder during riots in the city centre.
Earlier, he had been filmed talking to a hoodie-wearing youth with a looted flat-screen television.
Greater Manchester Police confirmed that Domenyk, who has changed his name to Domenyk Lattlay Fottfoy and has a string of convictions, including assault, fraud and armed robbery, had been charged with handling stolen goods and possession of cannabis.
Hundreds of so-called ‘Noonan Boys’ – youngsters said to be allied to the crime family – were allegedly also among the city centre rioters and looters.
Rachel Cerfontyne, IPCC Commissioner, has pleaded for witnesses to come forward with information about Duggan’s death.
Her officers are trawling through CCTV footage and recordings of police radio transmissions in the search for evidence.
Read more: London riots: Mark Duggan's uncle Desmond 'Dessie' Noonan was a crime lord | Mail Online