Key points after 18th week of Noah Donohoe inquest

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The long-running inquest into the death of the 14-year-old is being heard with a jury at Belfast Coroner’s Court

Fiona Donohoe and her son Noah(Image: Handout)

CCTV operator, Neill Gibson, ron Wednesday told the inquest how he was tasked during the search for Noah Donohoe to check recordings for signs of the schoolboy. He described how difficult it is to track people on city centre cameras.
Mr Gibson was asked by Brenda Campbell KC, for Noah’s mother Fiona, why he had managed to identify Noah on a number of cameras before he left his shift at 6am but did not spot other sightings caught on the system, which were identified later that morning by another operator.
Mr Gibson explained how operators had to make assumptions about how long it might take for someone to travel between camera locations and what route they might take. He explained how some cameras may have been facing the wrong direction or left zoomed-in by the operator at the time of the recording for a particular purpose. Mr Gibson told the jury: “All these things have to be taken into consideration.”
When asked by Ms Campbell about the urgency of his attempt to find Noah on the footage, he said: “Every child is automatically classed as a high-risk person and treated accordingly.” And he disagreed with Ms Campbell that it was easier than normal to identify people on CCTV at the time of Noah’s disappearance because it was “ coronavirus time” and the streets were relatively empty. Answering questions from Donal Lunny KC, for the PSNI, he said: “I worked to the best of my ability at the time and with the information I received at the time.”
On Thursday the inquest heard evidence from retired PSNI Detective Constable Wilson, who said there is “absolutely nothing at all” in a photo taken on Noah Donohoe’s phone after his last known sighting that would have helped police find the schoolboy. Mr Wilson was a digital media investigator (DMI), acting as a “first point of contact” for digital inquiries and was involved in the search of Noah’s Alcatel phone which was found by a member of the public.
Under questioning from Declan Quinn, junior counsel to the coroner, Mr Wilson agreed that his job was to review the available information on Noah’s phone and make a “judgment call” as to what should be elevated for further investigation. The jury viewed notes from Mr Wilson’s diary of his actions on the 24, 25 and 26 of June at which point he said “by far the major priority is to find Noah and find him alive”.
Mr Quinn outlined there is “concern from next of kin that this photograph wasn’t tagged” to become part of further inquiries, which Mr Wilson said he is now aware of. The barrister said the photograph “appears to be taken at a time after Noah had left his home for the last time and after he was last seen in Northwood Ro ad”. Mr Wilson said he didn’t recall seeing the specific photograph but that he “physically opened every photograph and asked if there’s anything that would tell us where that photograph was taken”.
Looking at the picture, which was displayed to the court, Mr Wilson said it is “clear that a person was holding the phone but as to what you could do to identify that person, absolutely nothing”. He agreed some shrubbery and greenery could be seen in the background, but asked if there was anything that assisted police in finding Noah, he said: “Absolutely nothing at all.”
The retired detective then faced questions from Brenda Campbell KC, representing Noah’s mother Fiona, who said that one way of finding a missing person would be to discern “the possibility of third party involvement”. Mr Wilson said officers would consider “is there any crime practiced against them or is it a missing person inquiry, but yes you are considering if there’s any other factors at play”, adding that “hypotheses are directed by the senior investigating officers”. He said he “didn’t recall” if he knew the working hypothesis and his role was to see if anything in digital media could help to find Noah.
The inquest continues next week.