Further CCTV footage to be examined ahead of Noah Donohoe inquest

By PA Reporter

Further CCTV footage is being examined ahead of an inquest into the death of a Belfast schoolboy.

Noah Donohoe (14) was found dead in a storm drain in north Belfast in June 2020 – six days after he went missing as he cycled to meet up with friends.

The latest in a series of preliminary hearings at the Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast ahead of an inquest into his death heard on Wednesday that CCTV footage up to a week before the teenager’s disappearance was examined.

A previous hearing was told that artificial intelligence (AI) was to be used to examine hours of CCTV footage in an attempt to discover if there are incidents of Noah leaving his home in the early hours in the days before he went missing.

Peter Coll KC, counsel to the coroner Mr Justice Rooney, said two reports around the CCTV footage has been disseminated to all the properly interested parties (PIPs) in the case.

He said the next of kin requested for that review process to extend back a further three weeks, to a month before Noah’s disappearance from his home in south Belfast.

“I understand police will have that material available for review in the week beginning April 21st … that is a three-week piece rather than one week so it might take a little bit more time to be reviewed,” he said.

Brenda Campbell KC, acting for Noah’s next of kin, said the report “appears to be comprehensive” with various ages of footage selected for further examination.

“What we need to do now, and will do with some urgency is identify those clips that then we would want to have a look at,” she said.

A number of other issues were briefly touched on during the 30-minute hearing on Wednesday, including progress around material to be disclosed by the PSNI and the Police Ombudsman.

Meanwhile the hearing was also told there has been no response from the social media giant Instagram to a request to memorialise Noah’s Instagram .

Mr Coll said: “A letter was sent to the owner of Instagram back on February 25, and has not to date been met with any response, so we perhaps, in conjunction with the PIPs, need to think about what options are available in respect of that issue in of trying to take that forward.”

Another preliminary hearing is set to take place on May 7th.