Noah Donohoe likely never saw message cancelling friends meet-up, inquest told

By Rebecca Black, Press Association

Noah Donohoe likely never saw a message telling him a planned meeting with his friends in north Belfast had been cancelled the last time he left home, an inquest has heard.

The inquest into the 14-year-old’s death was told his friend sent the message to Noah on Instagram, but as he had already left his home, he would not have had an internet connection to have received it.

Noah had been planning to meet with school friends at Cavehill after setting out on his bike on Sunday, June 21st.

While initially he had set out in that direction, he later veered off in a different direction towards the Shore Road.

His naked body was found in an underground water tunnel on June 27th, 2020, six days after he left home.

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

The long-running inquest, which is in its 15th week, heard further evidence from Simon Young, an expert technical analyst, over the examination of Noah’s phone, Chromebook and Kindle, as well as his online accounts.

Young said Noah’s Google account reveals his last search on June 21 was for the Cavehill area at around 5:34pm, before he left his home in south Belfast.

He said a message from Noah’s friend Jay was sent on Instagram at 5.41pm telling him the planned trip had been cancelled.

Barrister Donal Lunny, acting for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), put to Young that if Noah had left his home and the Wifi there by that time, and not having a data plan on his phone, he likely did not receive that message on Instagram.

Young said: “That’s possible.”

Malachy McGowan, acting for Noah’s mother Fiona Donohoe, referred to the last Google search being for Cavehill, and asked whether there anything to indicate Noah had been planning to go anywhere else.

Young responded: “No, there is nothing, nothing other than Cavehill that would give an indication as to where he was going.”

The inquest on Thursday also heard about analysis of calls to and from Noah’s mobile phone.

All but one of the 28 calls had been to and from his mother.

One call at 10:30pm on Saturday, June 20th, appeared to have come from Noah’s own number, and lasted for 32 seconds.

Lunny asked Young whether it was possible to call yourself.

He responded: “You can certainly call your own number, but I wouldn’t have expected a 32-second log of it.”

Pressed for a likely explanation, Young said he had consulted colleagues and none could say why the call was logged like that, adding: “I can’t explain it, no.”