Police encountered ‘hostile’ behaviour before Noah Donohoe search in park

By Jonathan McCambridge, Press Association

A police search in a Belfast park for Noah Donohoe was delayed due to a large crowd, some of whom were behaving in a “hostile fashion”, an inquest into the schoolboy’s death has heard.

A former police inspector has told a court that he crawled through an underground storm drain tunnel system as part of efforts to find Noah in 2020.

The retired officer said he believed the tunnels would have been a “very challenging place to survive if you were naked”.

The inquest at Belfast coroner’s court, which is being heard with a jury, is now in its fourth week.

Noah, a pupil of St Malachy’s College, was 14 when he was found dead in a storm drain in north Belfast in June 2020, six days after leaving 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.

Noah’s mother, Fiona Donohoe, attended the hearing on Tuesday.

A series of witness statements from retired inspector Menary, who previously managed the PSNI hazardous environment search (HES) team, was read to the jury.

Menary told the inquest he had attended Northwood Linear Park in north Belfast on March 24th, three days after Noah had gone missing.

The former inspector said in the park there were “hundreds of local residents in quite an agitated state” due to the disappearance of Noah.

He said it took more than an hour to clear the park so police could begin an inspection of the storm drain tunnel system.

A subsequent statement said there were up to 400 people in the park.

He said the crowd were “mostly well-meaning”, but that some were “behaving in a hostile fashion”.

He said: “It was simply not possible to engage in the search before clearing the park.”

Menary said the HES team searched above ground in Linear Park and below ground in the tunnels.

He said it quickly became apparent the “schematics” provided by the Department for Infrastructure about the water network system “did not match what we were finding on the ground”.

The ex-officer said: “A number of entry points to the storm drain tunnel could not be found and appeared to have been landscaped or tarred over during the most recent improvement works in the park.”

Menary said cameras were sent into the tunnels first, but he then had to enter the tunnel himself due to obstructions.

He said by the end of June 24th the team had confirmed that Noah was not in the non-tidal stretch of tunnel which had been searched.

He said Noah’s name had been shouted while he was in the tunnel, but there was no response.

Menary said the search had resumed on Thursday, but had to be suspended due to rising tides.

What is now clear is that the search on the Thursday almost got to the point where Noah was found, but that it had to cease due to a rising tide

He said: “What is now clear is that the search on the Thursday almost got to the point where Noah was found, but that it had to cease due to a rising tide.”

The retired officer said he was not personally involved in the search on subsequent days.

His statement added: “I believe it would be a very challenging place to survive if you were naked.”

He also said that the search was at that point looking for evidence that Noah may have been in the tunnel at some point, but it was “not a rescue operation”.

Menary said the team did not have access to a drone at the time.

He said: “I do not believe any other police force would have had a drone capable of deployment underground at the relevant time.

“At no point did I consider that we had an equipment deficit or that our search was hampered or would have been better with different equipment.”

After lunch, Menary was questioned by counsel for the coroner Declan Quinn.

The former officer told the court that his team had been requested to search the park on Tuesday March 23rd after being told Noah had gone in, but “was never seen” leaving.

He said he did know at that point there had been reports that Noah had been naked.

He said: “We were looking for any items of clothing, any evidence of books, laptops, any material, anything at all, really that was out of the ordinary that might be linked to his disappearance.”

The jury was shown camera evidence from inside the tunnel system that had been recorded by two members of the HES team on the Tuesday.

Menary said he had then sought maps of the network from the Department for Infrastructure before his team returned to the scene on the Wednesday.