Early hours CCTV of Noah Donohue not watched by police until 2022, inquest told

By Eleanor Barlow, Press Association

CCTV of Noah Donohoe leaving and returning home in the early hours before his disappearance was not watched by police until more than a year and a half after he went missing, the inquest into his death heard.

The 14-year-old was seen in the footage leaving his home in Belfast at about 3:30am on Sunday, June 21st, 2020, and returning just over half an hour later, without his headphones and flip-flops.

Later that day he set out on his bike to meet friends in Cavehill and was captured on CCTV cycling through the city centre and then towards the north of the city.

His naked body was found in an underground water tunnel on June 27th, six days after he went missing.

A post-mortem examination found the likely cause of death was drowning.

At the inquest into his death at Belfast Coroner’s Court on Friday, Detective Chief Inspector McCallum from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) confirmed the CCTV showing Noah leaving his home in the early hours was not watched by police until January 2022, when he saw it and highlighted it to the senior investigating officer.

He said that, although the CCTV was seized by officers in June 2020, the investigation was focused on events from the time of Noah’s disappearance rather than before.

He watched the footage while looking into an allegation made in October 2021 which proved to be spurious, he said.

Brenda Campbell, representing Noah’s mother Fiona Donohoe, suggested the footage would have provided an “abundance of further investigative opportunities”, such as more CCTV inquiries, if it had been watched by police earlier.

McCallum said: “If it had been watched for any reason there would have been further inquiries which would have been conducted into the previous night.”

He said officers could have tried to establish more of Noah’s movements and what he was doing at the time.

Campbell said: “The big question that might also have been capable of being answered had that been done in 2020, is to what extent did that trip out the night before relate to his disappearance the next day, because that was your concern when you highlighted it in 2022 wasn’t it?”

McCallum replied: “Yes. My reason for that is we know that Noah was in his home address before he went missing.

“We believed there were concerns around his behaviour, however nothing specific was said.”

He said he had hit a “number of barriers” in his inquiries into whether Noah had met anyone or picked anything up before his disappearance.

He added: “We like to be able to provide answers, that’s why we investigate. It’s why we try and establish answers for people. Sometimes it just comes that you can’t have all the answers.”

Campbell said: “Sometimes you just don’t find the answers that are available on the evidence you have, is that a possibility?”

He replied: “It’s not for me to comment on the investigation. I worked on it and I’ll let others comment on that.”

The inquest will continue on Monday.