Early referral of Noah case to specialist unit ‘unusual but justified’ – inquest

By Claudia Savage, Press Association

Local police were “justified” in elevating Noah Donohoe’s investigation to the PSNI’s criminal investigation department (CID) at an early stage, an inquest has heard.

A police witness reiterated his view to Belfast Coroner’s Court that officers had “gripped” the seriousness of the search for Noah at an early point.

The inquest into the death of the schoolboy, which is being heard with a jury, is now in its seventh week.

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

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

The court was told that PSNI Chief Inspector Robinson was experienced in missing persons investigations and had trained hundreds of officers.

Donal Lunney KC, counsel for the PSNI, took Robinson through the police log from the early hours of June 22nd 2020, highlighting points at which records had been made of handovers between officers.

The police log showed that Noah had been deemed high risk at 12.47am on June 22nd, hours after he was reported missing at 9.44pm on June 21st.

Robinson said at an operational handover every sergeant is looking for a number of things, “among those would be a high-risk missing person”.

Lunney asked if at the point of handover, officers were taking time to familiarise themselves with the case, to which Robinson said “in regards to risk assessment, yes” but that these should have been recorded in a separate tab elsewhere than the investigative log.

Asked if he had any concerns about the continuity of the investigation, Robinson said he did not in regards to handover and awareness of Noah’s high-risk status, but that the rationale for his status of high-risk had not been logged.

Later Lunney flagged that CID, which specialises in investigating serious, complex and organised crime, had been asked for input in the case as early as Tuesday June 23rd, which Robinson agreed would have been unusual.

He said this fact is “relevant to grip and ownership” of the investigation by PSNI but is “probably not relevant to outcome”.

Robinson further stated that “time in a missing person case is not the only factor” and that other factors such as risk of criminal involvement can cause a cause to be elevated to CID.

The court was shown a statement from his “compliance review” into the PSNI handling of the case where Robinson stated: “In my experience this case passed to CID at a very early stage”, adding that in his time as detective inspector he had “never” referred a case to CID.

The review went on to state that this decision was “justified” because the investigation was becoming more complex for a number of reasons, including that “possibilities that may have been plausible at an earlier stage become more remote” such as Noah being at Cavehill.