Woman who tried to trade in Noah laptop admits new offences

Maria Nolan, 30, pleaded guilty yesterday to stealing hundreds of pounds worth of clothing and perfume from two stores in Belfast last month.

The thefts were carried out weeks before she avoided being sent to prison on being convicted of handling stolen goods – the computer which belonged to 14-year-old Noah.

Adjourning sentencing in the new case, District Judge Anne Marshall told her: “I thought you had stopped offending.”

Earlier this month Nolan received a suspended jail term for having the laptop stored at her hostel room as searches for Noah continued across Belfast.

The teenager was found dead in a north Belfast storm drain in June 2020, nearly a week after he went missing on a bike trip.

Nolan’s co-accused, 35-year-old Daryl Paul, was subsequently jailed for stealing a rucksack containing Noah’s computer and school books.

Paul took the bag and its contents home with him after discovering them in Belfast on the day that the St Malachy’s College pupil vanished.

Days later he entered a Cash Converters in the city centre with Nolan and attempted to sell the computer.

Suspicious staff refused any trade and alerted the PSNI, who forced entry to Paul’s flat, recovering the rucksack and school books.

On June 26, 2020 police located Noah’s missing laptop at Nolan’s accommodation on Belfast’s University Street.

She retrieved it from under a chest of drawers and handed it to officers.

Neither of the pair are suspected of having any direct contact with the teenager.

Nolan, with a current address at Lodge Road in Coleraine, denied knowing it was Noah’s laptop and claimed she thought it belonged to Paul.

On August 11 Judge Marshall sentenced her to three months imprisonment, suspended for 18 months, with a warning not to commit further offences.

Appearing again at Belfast Magistrates’ Court yesterday, Nolan admitted thefts from House of Fraser and Dunnes Stores in the city on July 3.

She stole clothing, perfume and jewellery items with a total value in excess of £400.

Judge Marshall expressed concern that the offences “only just pre-date” the suspended term she imposed for handling the stolen laptop.

But defence barrister Sean O’Hare claimed Nolan had acted in a state of distress.

Sentencing was put back to next month for reports to be prepared.