CCTV captured Noah Donohoe sneaking out of house at 3.30am on day of disappearance
The shocking secret footage, captured just 14 hours before his disappearance, was only revealed to lawyers working for mum Fiona Donohoe more than two years after her son’s tragic disappearance
Noah Trailer
FOURTEEN-YEAR-OLD Noah Donohoe snuck out of his Belfast home at 3.30am on the day he would disappear and returned almost 35 minutes later after an unexplained and secret trip revealed today for the first time.
The teenager left his home at Fitzroy Avenue in South Belfast in pouring rain and wearing a T-shirt, shorts and flip-flops and carrying headphones.
When he returned at 4.05am, just as dawn was breaking, he was captured on CCTV soaking wet and without the headphones and the Marks and Spencer flip-flops.
Noah on his bike before he went missing
The shocking secret footage, captured just 14 hours before his disappearance, was only revealed to lawyers working for mum Fiona Donohoe more than two years after her son’s tragic disappearance of June 21, 2020.
“In the week while Noah was missing, PSNI officers asked me ‘if Noah could have snuck out’ at any time from the apartments without my knowledge.
"I told them that there was one key, and all the doors are very squeaky, and I would not have thought it likely – but obviously I was wrong’,” said Noah’s mum Fiona.
Mother Fiona at a rally for her son
The revelations are shared today in the Sunday World by journalist Donal MacIntyre, who is heading up an independent investigation into the case with a team of crime experts who are seeking crowdfunding to complete their work which will be broadcast in a film after the inquest.
Donal appeal for support
The secret late-night journey is sure to deepen the mystery around what happened to tragic Noah, whose lifeless body was discovered in a disused drain six days after he went missing.
His mother Fiona was not told about her son’s late-night journey and says she had no idea that he snuck out of their home just hours before his disappearance.
The third anniversary of the disappearance and death of the Belfast teen will be marked on Tuesday as experts say that the PSNI continue to withhold crucial information about how they conducted their investigation.
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What is known is that Noah set off from his home at 5.30pm on Sunday, June 2020 and cycled to the north of the city where he was recorded naked on his bike. His body was found six days later in a storm drain around 1km from where he was last seen on CCTV.
The law firm who represent the family only received the footage detailing Noah’s late-night journey last October. His mother Fiona insists she had no idea he had left their home and can throw no light on where he may have gone.
“I had no idea. I haven’t seen the footage; it is simply too distressing, but my legal team has, and it is shocking and truly concerning. We still have no idea where he was going, if he was meeting anyone or what was the purpose of the trip,” Fiona said.
Noah with mum Fiona
Mum Fiona has previously raised concerns that Noah may have been coerced into some kind of ‘county lines’ illicit activity and that this may have played a part in his unusual journey the next day to a part of North Belfast he was not familiar with.
MacIntyre has been investigating the case for months and put together an independent team of experts to unravel the mystery. Amongst them is former senior officer from the UK’s Serious Crime Squad, Andy Crocker, who investigated the Milly Dowler case amongst others.
Crocker says the new revelations raise the prospect of third-party involvement in the teen’s death, which the PSNI have insisted there is no evidence of.
“As a senior officer on the case I would immediately have to consider coercion or grooming of the missing child, and today we are talking about potential involvement in drugs,” Crocker told the Sunday World.
“Where did he go? Why? Who did he meet? I am shocked that this key information has been withheld for so long,” he added.
“Huge investigative opportunities have been missed here. A public appeal to preserve CCTV, ‘RING’ footage, and witness testimony – anyone who might have seen Noah out at 3.30am in the morning.
“We might have been able to ascertain the purpose of his journey – if there was a coherent one. I have conducted numerous public appeals and I am perplexed that one was not conducted, especially when it appears the PSNI were aware of Noah’s secret trip while they were still searching for him.”
MacIntyre’s team of specialist investigators has been conducting a full review of the case with the support of the family for over two years, and a new TV documentary will be broadcast later this year.
The journalist, who previously worked with the Sunday World as a special investigator, revealed that the CCTV of Noah leaving the small block of flats where he lived, leads him to believe PSNI have only disclosed a fraction of the imagery they have of Noah’s early morning trip.
“The PSNI have not given any coherent explanation as to why this material was denied the family, and apparently the coroner, for more than two years,” said MacIntyre.
“Noah is then seen returning to the flat at 4.05am soaking wet and this time without his headphones and Marks and Spencer flip-flops.
“The PSNI has given no indication to the family what other enquiries it has made about this mysterious journey,” the investigative journalist added.
“The PSNI compiled a compendium of footage for the coroner and family of his movements from when he left the house later that day (5.30pm) but, its understood from police sources, that they only disclosed a fraction of CCTV surrounding Noah’s mysterious trip earlier in the day.”
Coroner, Joe McCrisken was, at the start of the inquest process, at pains to dampen any speculation by stating that there was no evidence of third-party involvement in the events leading to Noah’s death.
“I consider that, based upon all of the evidence before me at this stage, and the evidence includes extensive CCTV footage and witness statements, that Noah acted alone when he travelled to Northwood Road and entered the drain system”, he said at the Belfast Coroner’s Court.
The PSNI and the Office of the Coroner in Belfast have yet to respond to requests for comment on this story.
A separate fight for other CCTV and disclosure material was played out last week when a pre-inquest hearing heard that Noah Donohoe’s family wanted key answers to CCTV disclosure in advance of any inquest at Laganside Court House.
Counsel for Fiona Donohoe, Brenda Campbell KC, said that the family were looking for CCTV close to Noah’s home address which the PSNI have told the family ‘would not be disclosed to us because it was not relevant and our request was disproportionate’.
The nature of the footage was not disclosed at the hearing. Counsel for the Coroner, Declan Quinn, said that this tranche of material may require a Court ruling.
“The focus of the next of kin is on settling all disclosure issues in advance of any hearing date,” he said.
The date for the inquest, originally scheduled for September, has been set aside until the disclosure issues are settled.
