Noah Donohoe inquest adjourned after three days of jury deliberations in Belfast

The inquest into the 2020 death of Belfast teenager Noah Donohoe has been adjourned until August or September after unprecedented 24-hour jury deliberations.

Jury exhausted after record deliberations in Donohoe inquest

The inquest into the death of 14-year-old Belfast boy Noah Donohoe has been adjourned until later this year, the Irish Times reports, after jury deliberations stretched across three days and into the early hours of Friday morning.

Coroner Kevin Rooney told jurors they were in "totally unchartered waters" as the hearing continued until 12.50am at the Royal Courts of Justice. "You are all exhausted," he told the panel. "I'm not going to allow myself to be rushed or you to be rushed into a decision."

Deliberations totalled 24 hours, beginning on Tuesday morning and concluding at 11.26pm on Thursday. Rooney described the length of time as extraordinary. "It is unprecedented to allow a jury to remain in deliberations for such a long period of time," he said.

The resumption of the inquest is not expected until August or September at the earliest, partly because four of the jurors have holidays scheduled between Friday and Saturday.

Almost six months of evidence

The inquest, which began hearing evidence in late January at Belfast Coroner's Court, was originally expected to conclude by Easter. It has since heard from 76 witnesses, received statements from a further 42 people, and examined maps, video footage, photographs, police logs and expert reports.

Noah, a pupil at St Malachy's College in Belfast, left his home in south Belfast on Sunday, 21 June 2020 to meet friends. He cycled across the city to the Northwood Road area of north Belfast, where he abandoned his bicycle on a pavement close to waste ground containing a culvert entrance to an underground water system. He had previously been seen falling from his bicycle and discarding his clothing.

His body was found more than 600 metres downstream inside the tunnel on Saturday, 27 June 2020 — six days after he was last seen — following a major search operation. A postmortem found the likely cause of death was drowning.

Ten questions for the jury

The jury of eight men and two women must reach unanimous verdicts on ten questions. These include the date of Noah's death and whether any errors by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) contributed to his death. The maintenance of the tunnel system by Stormont's Department for Infrastructure (DfI), including public access and safety measures, is also among the questions under consideration.

The exact time of Noah's death remains unknown. Experts have indicated he may have died on the same day he went missing, 21 June, or may potentially have survived until Tuesday, 23 June. A further possibility — considered unlikely — is that he was still alive on Wednesday, 24 June.

In his summing up, Rooney made clear that any finding of error against police can only relate to acts or omissions that took place before Noah died.

Mother present throughout

Noah's mother, Fiona Donohoe, was seated at the back of the courtroom until the hearing concluded in the early hours of Friday. She has attended every day of the inquest and has led a sustained public campaign for answers into the circumstances of her son's death.

Rooney paid tribute to the jury's "total dedication" before adjourning the hearing. He warned jurors to "avoid all speculation and rumour", particularly on social media, as they remained formally in deliberation. "Please do not allow yourself to be contaminated in any way by outside influences," he added.

The hearing was relocated from the Laganside court complex to the Royal Courts of Justice shortly before 6pm on Thursday to accommodate the late-night sitting.

Source: Irish Times