A thief who tried to trade Noah Donohoe’s laptop for drug money has admitted burgling her mother’s home twice.
Maria Nolan (32) and her co-defendant Aaron Murphy (30) both entered guilty pleas to single counts of burglary at Laganside Magistrates Court in Belfast earlier this month.
The pair, both from Lisburn but of no fixed abode, admitted entering Nolan’s mum’s home on Gransha Park in west Belfast as trespassers on two dates in May with the intent to steal various items.
According to the indictment the duo swiped two rings, two skirts and £50 in cash across the two burglaries.
During the court hearing on November 1, Nolan sat in the public gallery as District Judge Anne Marshall ordered pre-sentence reports in respect of both defendants.
They are due to be sentenced next month.
In January of this year it was revealed Nolan committed theft while doing community service for a previous offence.
District Judge Rosie Watters told her she should “probably” go to prison but due to her participation in drug treatment programmes and counselling, she deferred passing sentence for six months.
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Nolan, then of Gransha Park, 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.
Lisburn Magistrates Court heard Nolan had a bad criminal record but at the time of the theft was in the process of “recovery from long-term drug abuse”.
In August 2022, Belfast Magistrates Court heard how Nolan had stolen hundreds of pounds worth of clothing and perfume just weeks after avoiding jail for having Noah Donohoe’s laptop stored at her hostel room as searches for the teenager were ongoing.
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 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.