It has probably been the most high-profile story we have never covered on Slugger. The reason being that any discussion of the topic automatically got into conspiracy theories that I felt were hurtful to his family and friends. It was better to wait for the official investigation to release their findings, which they have today.
The jury in the Noah Donohoe inquest has found it was possible, but not probable, that failings by the Department of Infrastructure (DfI) over the tunnel in which he was found dead contributed to his death. The jury found that the DfI had failed to identify a hazard at the site, which it maintains, and that there was no warning sign. They also found numerous failings in the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s (PSNI’s) investigation but that these did not contribute to the 14-year-old’s death.
Noah’s mother, Fiona Donohoe, said he had been failed by both the department and police while the family’s solicitor said she had suffered “indignity after indignity”.
The jury found:
That Noah died between 19:00 BST and midnight on 21 June 2020, the day he disappeared, in the lower reaches of a culvert
That there was insufficient evidence to reach a conclusion as to explain why Noah behaved how he did when he left his home
That it was possible, but not probable, that any error by the Department of Infrastructure in how it managed the tunnel contributed to his death
That it was not possible any PSNI error contributed to his death
But there were 13 failings related to the PSNI and DfI that impacted the inquest’s ability to reach a conclusion on aspects relevant to his death
But one thing was very clear at the inquest – there was no evidence of any physical interaction between Noah and anyone else during his final bicycle ride from his home to north Belfast.
During his summing up, the coroner Mr Justice Rooney ruled out several possibilities, including drugs, foul play, suicide, or a psychotic experience.
He told the jury before they began deliberations that there was no evidence to support such findings and their verdict had to be based “solely on the evidence you have heard and seen in this court”.
There was no evidence of drugs in Noah’s body during the postmortem. The inquest also heard no evidence of third-party involvement or any link to loyalist paramilitaries, at odds with years of endless social media speculation that sometimes leaned into conspiracies.
I can understand the massive public interest in this case that people are keen to discuss the inquest and the findings but I would ask you at all times to be respectful of the family who are grieving the loss of Noah.
Managing Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.
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