Noah Donohoe inquest everything you need to know after one week break

Need to know Noah Donohoe inquest everything you need to know after one week break The inquest is entering its fourth week at Belfast Coroner's Court 14:10, 15 Feb 2026 Belfast teenager Noah Donohoe (Image: PA) The key points in Noah Donohoe inquest after one week break The inquest into the death of Belfast schoolboy Noah Donohoe returns on Monday, February 16, after a week off for the court's mid-term break. It is being held in the Belfast Coroner's Court, with the inquest taking place before a jury of 11 people - nine men and two women. The 14-year-old 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 to travel to the Cavehill. A post-mortem examination found his death was due to drowning. The inquest is examining the circumstances around the schoolboy’s disappearance and death The inquest has heard evidence for three weeks, and is now entering its fourth week. Witnesses who have spoken before the jury so far include two of Noah's best friends, the 14-year-old's school teachers, witnesses who live along Northwood Road - where he was last sighted - and police involved in the initial missing persons investigation in June 2020. Noah's mum, Fiona Donohoe, told police the disappearance of her son was "completely out of character." In a call to police, Fiona Donohoe told police her son had been crying in his room before he went to travel across the city, from his home in South Belfast to meet his best friends at Cavehill. The 14-year-old's friends said he was "excited for the future" in the days before he went missing. His best friend, Jay Tierney, described Noah as the "most intelligent human being I’ve ever met in my life" telling the court they would have almost daily Skype calls, some as long as eight hours. The jury was shown CCTV footage of Noah cycling naked in the moments before he went missing, and also heard from witnesses who saw him cycling his bike along North Queen Street and the Shore Road. A witness who saw the schoolboy fall from his bike said she did not see anything that suggested he had been injured. A resident of Northwood Road, Karen Crooks, told the jury she found the schoolboy's bike on the evening he went missing, June 21, 2020. She said she had never been made aware of the dangers to children of a storm drain at the rear of her home before Noah's body was found. A resident in Northwood Parade, Gemma McMullan, told the jury she heard a "high-pitched scream" on the night the schoolboy disappeared, but that the security lights at her home did not come on. Another resident of nearby Premier Drive, Sandra Semple, told the jury she was asleep downstairs in the early hours of June 22 when she was woken by the sound of somebody trying to open the back door of her home. The woman who found Noah's phone in the Castleton Park area told the jury she tried to use it to call Noah's mum before calling the police. Adelaide Armstrong found the black mobile phone lying in a grassy area on June 22, the day after the schoolboy went missing. The first police officer to visit Noah's house following his disappearance said he is “content” with the notes he took during his initial meeting with the schoolboy’s mother. The officer faced questioning at an inquest into why he had made only six lines of notes in his pocket notebook about the meeting with Fiona Donohoe, hours after Noah had gone missing. The inquest heard Noah's appearance on Grove Leisure Centre's CCTV footage appeared to have been "missed" by police in the first "critical" 24 hours after he went missing. Counsel for Ms Donohoe, Brenda Campbell KC, 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. Want to see more of the stories you love from ? Making us your preferred source on Google means you’ll get more of our exclusives, top stories and must-read content straight away. To add as a preferred source, simply click here . Follow : X (Twitter) Instagram ‌