Football chairman denies drugs plot
By Ali Cridland (The Argus)
Oct 25 2007
The chairman of a football club denied staging a burglary at his home to finance an international drug deal, a jury heard.
Baron Noonan, 56, known as Barry, told Lewes Crown Court he was devastated by the break-in, which left his house in Portslade ransacked and water-logged.
Noonan, who is chairman Southwick Football Club, denies conspiracy to supply cocaine.
He is accused of arranging the burglary at his house in Trafalgar Road to finance a plot to smuggle cocaine into the UK.
The father-of-four is alleged to have known that a fake company, called ACL Catering, was set up to act as a front for the drug smuggling operation.
The jury has heard a package containing £120,000 of cocaine sent from Trinidad and Tobago was posted to ACL care of the Sussex County League club's premises in Old Barn Way, Southwick, in October 2005.
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Giving evidence at his trial, Noonan, a carpet fitter and estimator, denied any part in the drug importation.
Noonan, who has no previous convictions, said working with young people through the football club and his links with boxing was his life and he had nothing to do with drugs.
He said: "I have never taken drugs and never even tried a cigarette. Drugs to me are a no go area, that is why I don't know why I am standing here today.
"I am not the straightest guy in the world but I am not involved in drugs. I detest drugs."
He said one of the reasons he felt so strongly against illegal drugs was because of personal experience with his friends and close family.
He said he had resigned as a director of the club following his arrest because he did not want to bring it into disrepute.
He said: "Southwick Football Club is everything to me. It is my life. It is what I do."
The former amateur boxer told the jury how he had been involved with a number of boxing associations and was vice president of the West Ham Boxing Club and helped found Brighton Ex-Boxers Association.
He said he has been involved in charity work for years and estimated his club had raised more than £100,000. He had also arranged fund-raising matches through his contacts with the cast of the TV shows London's Burning and The Bill.
Noonan said at the time of the drug delivery to the club major refurbishment was going on following an arson attack in July 2005.
He said the premises were full of workmen and numerous deliveries were being made daily.
He said he had no idea who was behind the burglary at his home in August 2005, which caused thousands of pounds worth of damage which he claimed on insurance.
The police claim an associate of Noonan's called Martin Taylor was responsible for the break-in.
It is alleged Taylor, 46, from London, who has previous convictions for drug offences, and Densley Villafana, who were at the time both prisoners on the run from Ford Prison, were involved together with Noonan with the drug deal.
Villafana, 35, from Selsey, has admitted being part of the plot and told the jury the other two men were involved.
Taylor has since died.
In court Noonan denied knowing Villafana or ever speaking to him.
He said he met Taylor when he stayed at a caravan park at Selsey, where Taylor also used to spend time with his family.
He said he had tried to help Taylor, who he visited in prison in London and Sussex, to get work at his club on day release from jail after he was imprisoned for dishonesty.
When asked about more than 200 phone calls made to him from Taylor, Noonan told the jury Taylor would phone daily from prison because he was bored.
He denied ever looking up information on his computer about Trinidad and Tobago. He said searches on his computer for the Caribbean islands could have resulted from one of his children doing a school project about Columbus.
The trial continues.
