GANGSTER Domenyk Noonan has made a mockery of the law with a grinning picture posted on Facebook - from his `high security' jail cell.

The notorious villain, serving a nine-and-a-half year sentence, has updated his page on the social networking website more than a HUNDRED times while behind bars.

Using a smuggled mobile phone Noonan, 45, has 'chatted' to friends on the site and also used it to promote his business activities.

Prisoners are banned from using mobiles or from contributing to websites such as Facebook and officials say prisons are clamping down on the practice.

But Noonan has not had any trouble updating his site from behind bars at high security Frankland Prison in Co Durham. He even kept friends up to date on his progress from hospital when he was recently treated for pancreas problems.

He has made around 180 `friends' on Facebook, including the journalist Donal MacIntyre who broadcast an infamous TV documentary about Noonan and his family in 2005.

Defiant

He continued to update his profile yesterday - five days AFTER the M.E.N alerted prison chiefs that he was on Facebook.

In a defiant message, apparently referring to the fact that his Facebook site has been reported to prison chiefs, he posted a message on his wall saying: "Which little piggy has Squeeled (sic)? Not that it makes a differance (sic)!"

Noonan, from Moston, is the second criminal on Facebook exposed by the M.E.N. Last week we told how another jailed convict, Kane Barratt, was able to update his page using a mobile phone.

According to his Facebook site history, Noonan set up his page on February 8 and posted a portrait which a fellow inmate had sketched of him.

He also added the photograph of himself posing with his hands behind his head, with the caption: "Not bad eh? I even fancy myself now."

Over the past five months, Noonan has posted 112 comments and updated the site almost every day.

Memorabilia

Noonan - who goes under the name Domenyk LattlayFottfoy Noonan on the site - also invites bids for a jacket he is selling.

He writes: "One of my security jackets is on sale on EBay if anyone's interested? The black one that was worn at Dessie's (his brother's) funeral!! It's under gangster memorabilia? Rare and the only one authorised by me."

The M.E.N. informed the Prison Service of Noonan's online activities on Friday morning but Noonan was still updating the Facebook page yesterday, commenting on a photo at 12.48pm. A Prison Service spokesman said: "Prisoners cannot personally contribute to websites. We are determined to tackle illicit mobile phones. We are implementing a strategy to minimise the numbers entering prisons, and to find or disrupt the working of those that do get in.

"It is a criminal offence to bring a mobile phone or component into a prison, with a penalty of up to two years imprisonment.

"We will seek the strongest possible penalties against those who are caught smuggling such items."

Noonan was jailed in 2005 after a revolver and ammunition were found under the bonnet of his car when he was stopped by police in Darlington.