Need to know
The inquest into the death of the 14-year-old is being heard with a jury at Belfast Coroner’s Court
The inquest into the death of Noah Donohoe is ongoing
- A Stormont department should have considered all “reasonably practical means” to prevent access to a culvert close to where Noah Donohoe ’s body was found, a safety expert told the inquest on Monday. Belfast Coroner’s Court also heard a claim that refurbishment work carried out on the culvert by the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) three years before Noah died had made it “easier to access” for children.
- A senior civil servant has denied that he entered a culvert five years after Noah Donohoe’s body was found in it in order to demonstrate the schoolboy could have exited the tunnel. On Tuesday, Jonathan McKee from the Department for Infrastructure, told the inquest he had gone into the underground tunnel because he wanted to be “sure of the facts” whether someone would be able to get back out.
- The jury were then shown CCTV footage from inside the underground water tunnel which was recorded in August 2013. Brenda Campbell KC, who represents Fiona Donohoe, Noah’s mother, in the proceedings, said 15 minutes of footage had been recorded on a single day. She said: “Nobody asked the department for the information that they had available to them about how easy it was to search that aspect of the upper stretch from the inlet down to the Shore Road while Noah was missing.”
- On Wednesday, Mr McKee told the inquest it was not “reasonably foreseeable” someone would access the entrance to the culvert in which Noah’s body was found. Neasa Murnaghan KC, barrister for the DfI, asked it if was “reasonably foreseeable a trespasser would have accessed” the area. Mr McKee said: “I don’t believe so. It is not a publicly accessible piece of land, it is bounded by security fencing and a locked gate across its boundaries. There are hedging and fencing at one of the other boundaries and then there are four residential properties on the other boundary.”
- The barrister asked the witness about options the department could have taken to reduce risks of access to the culvert. He said: “It is not always possible to manage the risk associated with infrastructure down to zero. Guidance is the tool to balance the risks that exist. Fencing wasn’t a practicable option.” The witness said there were a number of deterrents, including the barred debris screen over the entrance to the culvert. He said: “I myself wondered could I get through the debris screen. I tried to do that and I couldn’t.” Ms Murnaghan asked: “In all of your experience have you ever come across a death which has arisen in these circumstances.” Mr McKee responded: “No.”
- On Thursday, the inquest heard Noah likely never saw a message telling him a planned meeting with his friends at the Cavehill had been cancelled. His friends sent the message on Instagram, but as he had already left his home, Noah would not have had an internet connection to have received it. Simon Young, an expert technical analyst, was questioned over the examination of Noah’s phone, Chromebook and Kindle, as well as his online accounts. Malachy McGowan, acting for Noah’s mother Fiona, referred to the last Google search being for Cavehill, and asked whether there anything to indicate Noah had been planning to go anywhere else. Mr Young responded: “No, there is nothing, nothing other than Cavehill that would give an indication as to where he was going.”
- The inquest on Thursday also heard about analysis of calls to and from Noah’s mobile phone. All but one of the 28 calls had been to and from his mother. One call at 10.30pm on Saturday June 20 appeared to have come from Noah’s own number, and lasted for 32 seconds. Mr Lunny asked Mr Young whether it was possible to call yourself. He responded: “You can certainly call your own number, but I wouldn’t have expected a 32-second log of it.” Pressed for a likely explanation, Mr Young said he had consulted colleagues and none could say why the call was logged like that, adding: “I can’t explain it, no.”
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