Woman convicted of handling Noah Donohoe’s laptop stole cash from community service job

A woman involved in a failed bid to trade in schoolboy Noah Donohoe’s laptop for money to buy drugs committed theft while doing community service for a previous offence, a court has heard.

District Judge Rosie Watters told Maria Nolan she should “probably” send her to prison but after hearing the 31-year-old was undergoing drug treatment programmes and counselling, she deferred passing sentence for six months.

Nolan, from Gransha Park in Belfast, pleaded guilty to stealing cash and a credit card valued at £15 on July 26 last year while she was working at an outlet.

On Monday at Lisburn Magistrates Court, the defence conceded that Nolan had a bad criminal record but at the time of the theft was in the process of “recovery from long-term drug abuse”.

The lawyer said it was a breach of trust, but said Nolan admitted her guilt at the first opportunity.

The court was told since then things have changed — Nolan had not come to any police attention, was now back living with her family and was undergoing treatment and counselling for drug addiction.

While the defence submitted the pre-sentence report from the probation board was positive and DJ Watters agreed it was, the judge said that had to be seen in the context of offences being committed while carrying out punishment handed down by a court.

Putting the case back to July, DJ Watters made it clear to Nolan that if she reoffended she would be sent to prison but if she kept out of trouble, she would “find” a sentence “that doesn’t interfere with your liberty”.

In August 2022, Belfast Magistrates Court heard how Nolan had stolen hundreds of pounds worth of clothing and perfume from two stores a few weeks after she escaped going to jail for having Noah Donohoe’s laptop stored at her hostel room as searches for the teenager continued across Belfast.

The 15-year-old was found dead in a north Belfast storm drain in June 2020 nearly a week after he went missing on a bike trip and Nolan’s co-accused, 36-year-old Daryl Paul, was subsequently jailed for stealing a rucksack containing his computer and school books.

Neither of them were accused of having any contact with Noah but the previous court heard that Paul took the bag and its contents home with him after discovering them in Belfast on the day Noah vanished.

The pair entered a Cash Converters in the city centre and attempted to sell the computer but suspicious staff refused the deal and alerted the PSNI who, having forced entry to Paul’s flat, recovered the rucksack and school books.

He conceded that he planned to sell the computer for money to purchase drugs, some of which would be given to Nolan and on June 26, 2020, police located Noah’s missing laptop at Nolan’s then accommodation on Belfast’s University Street.

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