Gangster Domenyk Noonan has been arrested on suspicion of raping a man just two weeks after his big wheel protest brought Manchester city centre to a standstill.
Police said a 49-year-old man was arrested yesterday afternoon in the city centre and remains in custody for questioning. It is understood the suspect is notorious criminal Noonan.
Detectives are investigating a complaint that a man in his 20s was raped at an address in Stretford, Greater Manchester on Monday.
On Saturday, Noonan was charged with public nuisance following a stunt which took place on Manchester’s Big Wheel tourist attraction.
He was released on bail pending a court appearance, but only on the condition he does not enter Piccadilly Gardens – the part of Manchester city centre where the Big Wheel is located.
Noonan, who has changed his name by deed poll to Domenyk Lattlay-Fottfoy, spent more than six hours perched 100 feet above the ground on the structure two weeks ago.
He was apparently protesting against police plans to return him to prison after he was told he had breached his licence.
During the protest, a dozen people were trapped in the wheel’s pods for two hours, including an elderly couple and a boy of three.
Officers said his ‘outrageous’ actions endangered the lives of tourists.
On Saturday, Domenyk Noonan was charged with public nuisance following his Big Wheel stunt
Up to 1,000 people watched the drama unfold as a large area at the foot of the wheel was cordoned off, before firefighters using ropes and harnesses eventually freed the gangster.
Noonan, who has been the subject of a TV reality crime documentary, was released from prison in April this year after spending 18 months behind bars.
However, Noonan, originally from Moston, was recalled to prison for a nine-and-a-half year sentence imposed in 2005 for possessing a gun.
Since being released again, he has vowed to stand as an MP at the 2015 General Election.
Noonan is considered a central figure in the notorious Manchester crime family of the same name.
The family rose to notoriety after the murder of ‘White’ Tony Johnson – the leader of the so-called Cheetham Hill Gang – who was shot dead 1991.
Noonan’s brother Desmond was charged but later acquitted of the killing.
Over the next years, Desmond Noonan faced a number of convictions in connection to witness intimidation and jury tampering resulting in key witnesses refusing to testify against him and other members of the Noonan crime family.
In 2006 Domenyk Noonan and his brother were the subject of the Donal MacIntyre documentary ‘A Very British Gangster’.
Domenyk Noonan, who has a 20-year-old son named Bugsy, openly admitted to being gay during an interview with the Irish investigative journalist.
Desmond Noonan was stabbed to death just days before the screening of ‘A Very British Gangster’, in which he boasted of boasted of being ‘untouchable’.
He also said he had been behind 27 gangland murders, and claimed to have a ‘bigger army’, and more guns than the police.
