Witness who heard scream never gave police statement, Noah Donohoe inquest told

By Erik Olsson, Press Association

Police investigating Noah Donohoe’s death never followed up on multiple reports of noise and screaming near the culvert where his naked body was found, an inquest has heard.

Noah, a pupil at St Malachy’s College, was 14 when his body was found in a storm drain tunnel in north Belfast on June 27 2020, six days after he left home on his bike to meet two friends in the Cavehill area of the city.

He was found more than 600 metres downstream from where he had last been seen close to a culvert inlet behind houses at Northwood Road in north Belfast.

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

Jurors at Belfast Coroner’s Court were told that police collected statements from only four of the seven residents who reported hearing noises – including screams – between 12 midnight and 3am on June 22, despite having a team of 25 detectives.

The inquest also heard that one of the couples, who reported hearing three screams at around 1.30am at the back of their house in Northwood Road, were approached by police only 11 months after their initial questionnaire, by which time the elderly pair said they “did not hear any shouting”, according to a police notebook entry.

Another resident who reported hearing “something at the front door” and a “letterbox opening and shutting” was never approached by the police for a statement, while a caller to the public appeal who said her daughter heard a scream on June 21 at around 6.25pm at Dunlambert Drive near the culvert also never gave a statement.

The inquest heard the police logs recorded: “Caller states that her daughter was on above location at Dunlambert Drive end on Sunday evening approx 6.25pm and she heard a loud scream. She did not see anything.”

Turning to Detective Chief Inspector McCallum from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Brenda Campbell KC, counsel for Noah’s mother Fiona Donohoe, said: “This was information that was felt important enough to be put into a police chronology.

“What I’m interested in is why we do not have a statement from this individual.”

In response, the police officer replied: “I was aware that a number of screams were heard in the area.”

Ms Campbell replied: “But you have a team of 25-strong detectives, but you come away with only four statements.”

The police’s log system for information from public appeals had become “unwieldy” and officers started using “notebooks and journals”, according to the minutes of the investigating team’s morning meeting.

Questioned on Wednesday by Ms Campbell, DCI McCallum said that taking unverifiable statements from the residents who heard screams was not a priority, adding: “It was not going to help us at that time.”

Asked about the urgency around the investigation, DCI McCallum said: “The urgency lessened somewhat when the body had been located.

“The time Noah was missing was: urgent, urgent, urgent”.

Ms Campbell described DCI McCallum’s initial hypothesis on June 24 that Noah had sustained a head injury and discarded his personal effects such as his mobile phone, backpack and clothing without any third-party involvement as “problematic”.

“Positive evidence at this point in time was that he was a smart, fun, capable boy,” she told the long-running inquest, which is now in its 17th week.

“By this stage the investigation has his bike, his hoodie and his trainers.

“You were still missing his laptop, bag, contents of his bag. You were still missing his coat. And you were missing his shorts and his underwear, for which there was no explanation. And there is no explanation for where they ended up.”

DCI McCallum, who was one of the investigation’s senior officers, said: “These were the hypotheses that would have driven the investigation, but that does not mean that we would not have been alive to other information.”

The inquest also heard that police took 21 months to follow up on a report by a man named as Conor McCaul, who said he saw a person matching Noah’s description riding a bike naked in Northwood Road around at around 4pm on June 21 and that a vehicle later came speeding down the street, with two males on board.

“Conor McCaul was not approached for a witness statement until March 2022,” Ms Campell said. “And that’s surely a concern.”

“Yes, I believe that man should have been approached,” DCI McCallum said.

Jurors were told that police had secured only one hour’s worth of CCTV footage from one camera in Northwood Road.

“I don’t think I was aware of that,” DCI McCallum said. “In terms of collecting CCTV, I had no involvement in that.”

He also said police did not ask EE, Noah’s mobile provider, to explain why his phone location was different between 7.41pm and 8.10pm on June 21, the day he went missing.

“In other words, the phone was on the move,” Ms Campbell said, referencing a report by a telecoms expert which found that “Castleton Park where the phone was found is not within the wedge plotted on the map showing the 1941 hrs ping”.

DCI McCallum also said he did not know the schoolboy’s phone had a photo of a stranger’s hand, taken on June 21.

“This is a real clear line of inquiry that at the very least needs to be eliminated. It needs to be factored in,” Ms Campbell said.

“The theory that Noah discarded that phone by himself is not a solid one.”

DCI McCallum disagreed, adding: “The fact there’s a hand does not suggest that Noah’s phone was taken away in an adverse way.”

The inquest continues.