Man jailed for life for grooming young girls online and then sexually abusing them

A man who groomed three teenage girls via social media sites and then sexually abused them has been jailed for life.

Marc Noonan, 27, from Liverpool, moved from one victim to the next and escalated the violence and abuse against the girls as time went on.

His youngest victim was just 13. The other two were 14 and 16.

He met them via the social media sites Tik Tok and Snapchat. He encouraged them to believe they were in a relationship. All the girls told Noonan their real age. He often lied that he was younger than he was.

He would coerce them into sending him intimate photos of themselves and he would then manipulate them into meeting him, at which point he would commit serious sexual offences against them, including rape.

Before the trial, he pleaded guilty to several sexual offences committed against one of the victims, as well as disclosing private sexual photographs of the second victim and threatening to disclose private sexual photographs of the third.

He would demand intimate pictures of the girls and would threaten them if they refused. When they sent the pictures, he would switch from being angry to being calm and affectionate.

One of the victims described how Noonan would speak to her in a way that made her feel like what had happened wasn’t bad. She was made to feel like it was her fault and that she was overreacting. When he forced himself on her he would advise her not to fight back.

Noonan was emotionally manipulative and physically violent with all three victims, which had a profound effect on them.

The methods described by the victims led police to believe it was the same person responsible and Noonan was arrested in February 2023. He was charged with 41 counts.

He pleaded guilty to 12 of the counts before the trial. He was then convicted of a further 28 counts after trial and was acquitted of a single count of non-fatal strangulation.

Today, 17 April 2024, at Liverpool Crown Court he was sentenced to life imprisonment and must serve a minimum of 18 years before he can be considered for release.

The Crown Prosecution Service successfully applied to the court for a comprehensive Sexual Harm Prevention Order to be imposed on Noonan, to prevent him from committing similar offences again. The CPS also successfully applied for a restraining order to prevent him contacting the three victims again in any way. He has also been placed on the Sex Offender Register until further order.

Senior Crown Prosecutor Georgiana Panteli, a specially trained lawyer with CPS Mersey-Cheshire’s Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) unit, said: “Marc Noonan is a serious, violent, on-line predator who has groomed his victims in order to meet up with him and commit serious sexual offences.

“His methods were the same with all the victims, setting up opportunities to coerce and abuse them.

“He had previous convictions for possession of indecent images of children and extreme pornography. When he was sentenced for those offences, a Sexual Harm Prevention Order was made against him. He has also now been convicted of breaching the terms of this Order in the same trial.

“His offending behaviour was so entrenched that, it’s likely that, if he had not been arrested for these offences, he would have gone on to commit more.

“The Crown Prosecution Service would like to thank the victims and their families for their help and courage in bringing this sexual predator to justice.”