Archive Crime Drugs Vice Pipe Band Leads Gangster's Funeral Procession
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Hundreds of mourners attended the funeral today of one of Britain’s most notorious crime bosses. Four black plumed horses drew the hearse carrying Desmond Noonan, who was stabbed to death last month in Chorlton, Manchester. His murder came just days before he appeared in a channel Five fly-on-the-wall TV documentary boasting of his crime empire. Noonan, 46, told TV reporter Donal MacIntyre that police linked him to most of the murders in Manchester and he had “more guns than the police”. MacIntyre was at the funeral to film the event along with other reporters and photographers. Noonan’s brother, Dominic, said: “Anyone who knows Dessy knows that he would love all this attention.” Dominic led the funeral procession 500 yards from the Noonan family home on a council estate for the Requiem Mass at St Aidan’s RC church in south Manchester. Traffic came to a standstill as a traditional kilted pipe band led the carriage carrying Noonan’s casket which was draped in red roses and white lilies. It was followed by a cortege of 12 black Daimler cars carrying more floral tributes. Noonan’s family, originally from Dublin, filed into the church followed by mourners. The service was relayed outside on loudspeakers where hundreds more mourners, including many men in black wearing dark sunglasses, stood in the sunshine, listening in silence. Derek McDuffus, 41, originally from the south Manchester area, has been charged with Noonan’s murder and Shajahan Cooke, 39, from Chorlton, has been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
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