THE killer of gangster Dessie Noonan is likely to be separated from other inmates to protect him from revenge attacks during his life term in jail.

Drug dealer Derek McDuffus is regarded as being at risk inside prison after murdering a key figure in one of Manchester's most notorious criminal firms.

It is understood McDuffus had declined previous offers to be segregated from other inmates while he was held at Strangeways jail.

But after he was convicted on Monday of Noonan's murder, Prison Service officials will review his case.

Insiders say it is likely the threat to McDuffus's safety will be considered too great and he will be segregated.

The 41-year-old, known as "Yardie Derek", was found guilty of murdering Noonan at the end of a trial at Preston Crown Court.

The judge, Mr Justice Davis, told McDuffus he would serve a life sentence. He recommended a minimum of 15 years inside.

McDuffus stabbed 45-year-old Noonan during a row at his home in Merseybank Avenue, Chorlton, in March before throwing him out on to the street to die.

The killing came just days before the broadcast of a TV documentary on gangsters, in which Noonan boasted that he had "more guns than the police".

Noonan also hinted during an interview that police suspected he was responsible for 27 murders.

Hundreds watched his horse-drawn funeral procession in April which was led by a pipe band and drummers.

The trial of McDuffus heard Noonan was a "notorious gangster" and the hearing was held behind tight security.

Extra police officers were deployed to protect the court and airport-style body scanners were used outside the court-room to ensure no one entered with a concealed weapon.

The jury heard McDuffus was a drug dealer on the Merseybank estate in Chorlton but refused to sell drugs to Noonan, who was addicted to crack cocaine.

Witnesses said there was a history of "bad blood" between the pair because Noonan had stolen drugs from McDuffus's sister.

Noonan usually asked friends to go to McDuffus to buy drugs on his behalf, but as he left The Park pub in Northern Moor after a night of drinking and karaoke there was no one there to help him. Prosecutors said he knocked on McDuffus's door three times before the drug dealer took out a kitchen knife and confronted him on his doorstep. Noonan then called his wife Sandra on his mobile phone to say he had been stabbed. He was found dying on the street.

McDuffus and Shajahan Cooke, his partner and mother to his three children, created a tissue of lies to cover up what had happened but the police and jury rejected their version of events. Cooke, 39, was sentenced to 18 months in jail for attempting to pervert the course of justice by lying to police.

McDuffus and Cooke both denied the charges against them.

A friend of the couple told the jury he had been given a pair of blood-soaked shoes the day after the killing and dumped them in a bin at the Stretford Arndale Centre.

Police never found the shoes or the murder weapon.

Detective Chief Inspector Shaun Donnellan, who led the investigation, said: "Desmond Noonan lived a violent and often illegal life. He had a detrimental effect on many people around him, either directly or by association.

"He considered himself to be a powerful person within the criminal world, even declaring himself untouchable to television cameras. Yet he died addicted to drugs and lying on the pavement having had an argument with a drug dealer."

Life of Yardie Derek

DEREK McDuffus - known as "Yardie Derek" - was born in Manchester but grew up in Jamaica.

He returned to Britain when he was in his twenties and met girlfriend Shajahan Cooke at a nightclub in Hulme in 1992. They had three children together.

McDuffus, 41, worked as a DJ in Manchester and Ashton but his primary source of income was from drug dealing, a business he operated from his home in Merseybank Avenue, Chorlton. In the mid 1990s he was sentenced to three years and 10 months for possession of heroin with intent to supply.

McDuffus never explained what happened on the night Noonan was killed, showing contempt for the police who interviewed him.

Instead of trying to convince the jury that he had acted in self defence, he told the jury that he had nothing to do with the killing, that he had never dealt in drugs and never met Noonan.

His motive for stabbing the gangster will remain largely a mystery.

Crime-firm boss

DESMOND Noonan was a man who revelled in his fearsome reputation as a gangland enforcer.

Known to family and friends as "Dessie", he was the gregarious head of the Noonan criminal firm.

When asked on camera by reporter Donal MacIntyre how many murders police suspected he was responsible for, Noonan broke into a broad smile before hinting at a total of 27.

In the Channel 5 documentary, broadcast a couple of days after his death, Noonan also joked about the intimidation of witnesses.

Dublin-born Noonan dominated the Manchester underworld throughout the 1990s and made frequent appearances in court charged with violent offences.

In February 1991 Noonan was implicated, along with brother Derek, in the murder of 22-year-old gangster "White Tony" Johnson.

The shooting was thought to be part of a battle for control of the hard drugs market in Manchester.

Dessie and Derek walked free after the jury was unable to reach a verdict. Two years later Noonan was one of a group who left twin brothers battered and bleeding outside a nightclub. One witness described the then 36-year-old as acting "like a psycho". He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years and nine months in jail.

Heading towards middle age, the 45-year-old father-of-two had become addicted to crack cocaine and booze.