Police officer saw CCTV of a naked youth jumping off his bike and running towards wasteland on night after Noah Donohoe went missing, inquest hears
A police officer has told an inquest he saw CCTV of a naked youth jumping off his bike and running towards wasteland on the night after Noah Donohoe went missing.
Noah, 14, was found naked and drowned in a storm drain tunnel in north Belfast in June 2020, six days after leaving home on his bicycle to meet two friends in the Cavehill area of the city.
A post-mortem examination found the cause of death was drowning.
The inquest at Belfast Coroner's Court into the death of the schoolboy, which is being heard with a jury, is in its fourth week.
Constable Morrow told a court today that he was called to Northwood Road in north Belfast on the night after Noah disappeared in June 2020.
The officer said he was on duty at 11pm on June 22, when he was sent to the road to make inquiries about CCTV footage.
However, after viewing footage taken by a resident, Mr Morrow did not seize the footage or take any handwritten notes about it.
Mr Morrow said he was approached by a resident who had footage on his mobile phone from his domestic CCTV.
A sighting of schoolboy Noah Donohoe captured by CCTV cameras close to a leisure centre was apparently 'missed' by police in the 'critical' first 24 hours after he disappeared, an inquest has heard
Fiona Donohoe, the mother of 14-year-old Noah Donohoe, pictured outside Belfast Coroner's Court
The constable watched the footage, which he said showed a male cycling up Northwood Road shortly after 6pm on the previous evening.
He said: 'The male appeared to be younger from his stature.
'However, at no point did I see the male's face to confirm age.
'I observed that the male had no clothes on and jumped off his bike and ran between houses and the direction of wasteland behind the street.'
Mr Morrow added that he was informed by the resident that the footage was around three minutes slow.
He told the court he could not seize the footage at the time as the resident did not know how to download it.
Counsel for Fiona Donohoe, Brenda Campbell KC, questioned the officer on why he had no handwritten notes of the incident.
She also asked him why he did not immediately do a timecheck on the footage.
The officer said he took the resident at his word that the footage was three minutes slow.
He said there would only have been a formal requirement for a timecheck when the footage was being seized.
The officer said he had no further involvement in the inquiries.
Noah's mother, Fiona, has attended every day of the proceedings
The inquest then heard evidence from Constable Thompson, who had viewed the CCTV footage alongside Constable Morrow.
In his statement, he said the youth in the footage appeared to match the description of Noah.
Mr Thompson said he had presumed the youth had then entered the dense wooded area to the rear of Northwood Road.
Constable Thompson said he came back to the scene in the early hours of the following morning to check the area after search and rescue had been stood down.
He said: 'We were trying to go in anywhere that Mr Donohoe could potentially have been hiding.
'So, we're looking for accessible coal bunkers, sheds, gardens, anywhere that he might have been seeking shelter.'
Ms Campbell pointed out that the officer's statement to the inquest claimed he had no other involvement in the investigation after the visit to Northwood Road on Monday night.
She said it was 'clear that was not the position' because he had been assigned to the case again on the Tuesday.
The officer said this was an error on his part.
Ms Campbell turned her questioning towards police efforts to secure CCTV footage of Noah's journey on his bike through Belfast on the Sunday, before he disappeared.
The barrister said there would have been 'potentially a treasure trove' of footage from the shopping complex at Yorkgate in the north of the city.
The jury was then shown body-worn camera footage from a colleague of Constable Thompson, which showed police at the shopping centre watching CCTV of Noah riding his bike on York Street.
Ms Campbell said there were a number of corresponding cameras which would have potentially covered the next areas where Noah travelled.
She asked the officer whether any effort had been made to look at a range of cameras.
The constable said he could not remember, but would have presumed so.
A still from CCTV footage showing Noah cycling on York Road in Belfast on the day he disappeared
The inquest previously heard that a sighting of schoolboy Noah Donohoe captured by CCTV cameras close to a leisure centre was apparently 'missed' by police in the 'critical' first 24 hours after he disappeared
Detective Constable Keatley said that on Monday June 22, she was tasked with investigating the whereabouts of Noah.
Ms Campbell said that on the day after he went missing, at 3.15pm, the police log stated that 'CCTV was also checked (at) the Grove leisure centre and the funeral directors facing it with negative results'.
She asked Ms Keatley if this meant that officers had checked the Grove leisure centre footage and did not see Noah on it, to which the constable agreed.
The CCTV footage from the Grove leisure centre on Shore Road was then played in court.
Ms Campbell pointed out that the camera footage is around 43 minutes behind the real time, and that it would be 'basic policing' to check whether CCTV systems were operating in real time.
She said this meant that events from around 6pm can be viewed on the Grove leisure centre CCTV at 5.17pm.
'If an officer or officers on CCTV duty checked the camera time for 6pm rather than the real time, they are looking at a period 40 minutes after Noah has passed. And so he's never going to be on it,' she said.
The constable said she was not tasked with checking CCTV footage and so could not comment on what other officers checked or what inquiries they made.
Ms Campbell said it appears Noah 'may have been missed on that Grove footage' because 'he was on it at 6.01pm when we were told it was a 'negative result'.
The constable replied 'yes'.
Ms Campbell then said that an hour-and-a-half later, a police log states that the Grove leisure centre footage was 'poor' and there was a '30-minute time difference' on it.
At 6.41pm, a police log entry stated: 'Enquiries conducted at Grove leisure centre, no CCTV available at this time, no staff present to operate it.'
Ms Campbell suggested there was a 'grey area here' for police on whether the Grove leisure centre footage was negative or whether the camera times were not right.
She asked Ms Keatley at what 'level of urgency' officers were pursuing CCTV footage in relation to Noah's disappearance.
'My understanding was that everyone was very invested in this investigation, but I can't speak for crews I didn't see or wasn't with,' the constable said.
The inquest continues.
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