Max Dos Santos Leite told the inquest they were busy and ‘With all due respect, (the body) wasn’t going anywhere'(Picture: MEN)

A group of models spent six hours doing a fashion shoot after discovering a body when they broke into a derelict warehouse.

The group of eight also went for a pizza before contacting police about the discovery of Declan Noonan, 27, who had hanged himself.

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Brothers Andrew and Sean Geaney commissioned photographer Owen Birrell plus five models to take part in shoots across the city.

One included the former Dunlop site and they had to break in on July 15 last year.


They found the body, but made a collective decision not to call police with one of them saying they only had ‘that time on that day to get stuff done’ and ‘it wasn’t going anywhere.’

Amber Dobson said they didn’t think it was real (Picture: MEN)

Habibi Deen said he was freaked out by what he saw (Picture: MEN)

They continued to take pictures throughout the building before going to get a pizza.



It was only when one of the group, Sean Geaney, told his girlfriend at 1am the following morning that anyone thought to call police.

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Manchester Coroner’s Court heard that the group would have been charged with a criminal offence if they had waited until later in the morning to inform police of the discovery.

An arrest warrant as been issued for one of the models, Leroy Numa, because he failed to attend the Manchester Town Hall inquest despite being summonsed as a witness.

Sean Geaney told the inquest: ‘We could have called, we should have called, but we didn’t. We are not sociopaths. When we got home what happened hit us.

Owen Birrell said there was a collective decision to carry on adding that it was a ‘selfish act’ (Picture: MEN)

‘It felt completely surreal. It was almost like it didn’t happen. There was no rational thinking.’

Andrew Geaney added: ‘Everyone was really shocked. No-one was thinking rationally. I think we were concerned because we were trespassing.

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‘The plan was to call that in anonymously. Naively we thought that was possible.’

When asked why he didn’t dial 999, model Max Dos Santos Leite, 17 at the time, said: ‘We just came to the conclusion that we needed to get stuff done.

‘In all due respect, we only had that time on that day to get stuff done. We didn’t have any other free time. With all due respect, it (the body) wasn’t going anywhere.’

Sean and Andrew Geaney commissioned the photography (Picture: MEN)

Habibi Deen, another model, who was 25 at the time, said: ‘I didn’t know what to do. I can still see the gentleman’s face when I close my eyes. It really freaked me out. I was in a complete state of shock. I thought someone was going to do something about it.’

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Amber Dobson, another model who said she was 19 or 20 at the time, said: ‘We didn’t think it was real. At first we thought it was a mannequin. I didn’t really know what was going on. I didn’t know what we should do. It was my day off from work. I wasn’t with it at all.’

Oliver Lewis-Chapman, another model, was questioned by Declan’s mother, Julie McKenna, as to whether he felt uncomfortable knowing there was a dead body in the same building as the photo shoot.

They had broken into the disused factory for the photoshoot (Picture: MEN)

He replied: ‘I’m not sure’, but Mrs McKenna replied: ‘It wasn’t that traumatic because you carried on taking pictures.’



He added: ‘It was almost like it didn’t happen. Knowing what I know now, I would have called the police straight away.’

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Owen Birrell, the photographer who was 20 at the time, said: ‘It was a collective group decision to carry on and get the work done, which was a selfish act.’

Asked by Mr Meadows what his reaction to discovering the body was, he added: ‘It was pretty shocking. I have never seen anything like that before.’

But Mr Meadows replied: ‘It didn’t seem that your shock was sufficient to inhibit your activities.’

Mr Meadows said the group, all aged from 17 to 25 at the time, had ‘temporarily lost their moral compass’.

He said: ‘With the greatest respect to all of those involved, they might have been in shock and distress.

‘They weren’t to know the circumstances, but as a matter of common sense, it shouldn’t have taken five hours.’

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The court heard that a number of the group had mobile phones with them.

Sgt Shagufta Khan, who led the case for GMP, said Andrew and Sean Geaney, Owen Birrell and Leroy Numa were interviewed under caution but no charges were brought.

She added that the failure to report the death immediately delayed GMP’s investigation, as they could only search the building properly the next morning due to it being dark.

She said: ‘They were more interested in the photo shoot and lighting because they needed to get it done and they were setting up a new business.’


The court heard that Declan, from Openshaw, had been suffering from paranoia before he went missing.

At about 3am on July 11 last year, he was spotted by a taxi driver in Hyde Road, Gorton, who had stopped to let some passengers use a cash machine.

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Declan, who was barefoot, told the taxi driver that someone had tried to kidnap him, and he allowed Declan to use his phone to call the police.

Officers arrived and were concerned for his welfare, and attempted to take him to his mother’s house, but after no answer took him to his grandfather’s house.

As the police car stopped outside the home, Declan opened the door and ran off, with officers unable to find him.

Wracked with worry, Declan’s mother reported him missing the following day and printed out 1,000 flyers, which she handed out in the city centre on July 13 and 14.

It was the following day that Declan’s body was discovered in the derelict former warehouse, which had staircases missing and holes in the floor.

Mrs McKenna told the inquest that Declan had learning difficulties and ‘struggled’ through secondary school.

She said Declan was ‘very depressed’, but his father James Noonan said there had been no suggestion that his son wanted to harm himself.