Football boss guilty of drugs plot

The boss of Southwick Football Club, Baron Noonan, 56, known as Barry, showed no emotion as was found guilty at Brighton Crown Court of conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

During the trial Noonan's friends actor Chris Ellison and former boxer Michael Watson told the court they could not believe he would ever be involved in illegal drugs.

But the jury took one-and-half days to reach its unanimous verdict in the fifth week of the trial.

Noonan, who suffers from a heart condition, dramatically collapsed in the dock last week and was taken to hospital by ambulance.

Today he remained composed as Judge Paul Tain remanded him in custody until Wednesday when he will be sentenced.

The judge told him: "The sentence imposed will inevitably be a substantial prison sentence. There will be no bail because of a substantial risk of flight."

Noonan, who has no previous convictions, was accused of setting up a fake company, called ACL Catering, to act as a front for the drug smuggling operation.

The class A drug, weighing almost a kilo, was posted from Trinidad and Tobago, in the Caribbean, and addressed to ACL care of the Sussex County League club's premises in Old Barn Way, Southwick.

It arrived on October 21 2005, delivered by an undercover police officer after the package containing business folders stuffed with drugs was intercepted by customs officers at Stanstead Airport.

Noonan, of Trafalgar Road, Portslade, was accused of plotting the operation with two accomplices, Densley Villafana and Martin Taylor, convicted criminals who were both on the run from Ford Open Prison at the time the drugs were imported.

Taylor, 46, from London, who had a previous drug conviction, failed to turn up at court when the trial was due to begin in March and was later found dead in Scotland.

Villafana, 35, from Trinidad and Tobago, admitted his part in the plot and told the jury the other two men were involved.

But Noonan, a former amateur boxer, came out fighting and maintained his innocence.

He told the jury his life had been a living hell since he was arrested.

In court the married father-of-four portrayed himself as a respectable, hard-working business man who was devoted to his family and the football club.

Noonan, who works as a carpet estimator, described how he gave up his free time fund-raising for charity and as the member of a number of organisations, including vice-president of Westham Boxing Club, London Ex-Boxers Association, a board member of Sussex Academy of Sport and Brighton Ex-Boxers Association, which he helped to found.

Noonan, who estimated his club had raised more than £100,000 for good causes, said he helped to organise charity football matches with the cast of London's Burning and The Bill.

He told the jury he hated drugs and held such strong views he did not smoke or even take headache pills.

He said: "I have never taken drugs and never even tried a cigarette. Drugs to me are a no go area.

"I am not the straightest guy in the world but I am not involved in drugs. I detest drugs."

Noonan said he had resigned as director of Southwick Football Club, which he had been involved in since 1992, 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."

During the trial the court heard checks on courier company Fedex records showed an earlier package had been sent from Trinidad and Tobago to ACL Catering, again care of the football club, and had been signed for by Noonan on September 26 2005.

Mobile telephone records showed a series of calls made between phones belonging to Noonan, Villafana and Taylor in the weeks leading up to the delivery of the second package.

When Noonan's Mercedes was searched officers found a folder identical to the ones in the seized package in the boot and it had traces of cocaine on it.

Tests showed the imported drugs were 95 per cent purity, matching the highest seen by police officers in Sussex.