Jury shown footage of Noah Donohoe's body being found

Video footage of schoolboy Noah Donohoe's body in an underground water tunnel has been shown to the jury at the inquest into his death.

The moments after the discovery of his body were recorded on a small camera worn by a police search-and-rescue team.

Noah, who was 14, disappeared on 21 June 2020, and his body was found in the tunnel close to a Translink depot along the M2 in north Belfast.

The last reported sighting of the St Malachy's College student was at Northwood Road close to the tunnel inlet, more than 600m upstream from where his body was discovered six days after he went missing.

Constable Wylie, from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) search-and-rescue team, described finding Noah's body shortly after he and a colleague entered the tunnel chamber which was 8ft (2.4m) in diameter and 10ft (3m) high.

He said they saw human remains and "could clearly see a pair of legs and buttocks" with no clothes.

The witness said he returned above ground to inform his team and two more colleagues joined them when they returned underground.

Wylie said they noticed about half a dozen marks on a thin layer of sludge on the sides of the tunnel and he believed they were finger marks resulting from someone extending their hands out "to steady themselves".

It was "as if someone was moving through and steadying themselves".

He also explained that the marks appeared to have been made "by smaller hands".

"My belief was these marks were made by Noah himself," Wylie said.

The witness said there was "very little water" in the tunnel at the time.

The inquest was then shown body camera footage used by the police search and rescue team inside the tunnel after Noah's body was discovered.

There were echoing sounds in the tunnel as well as the sound of splashing and dripping water as the team made their way through the dark environment with the aid of torch lights,

One member of the team remarked, "remains are visible".

Noah's body could be seen lying close to a corner in the tunnel.

The search and rescue team also observed that there were "no clothes" and there were "some green deposits on his back".

Noah's mother, Fiona, left the courtroom just before the footage was played on screens around the room and she turned four minutes later after the recording ended.

The inquest also heard there was no sign of Noah on CCTV footage captured from the back of a house close to where he disappeared.

A police witness, Constable Craig, told the hearing he watched CCTV footage taken from the rear of 85 Northwood Road in north Belfast.

It was captured about the time of Noah's disappearance and the police officer viewed it during police enquiries in the area two days after Noah went missing.

The police officer said he did not see anything on the footage to suggest Noah was in the area behind the house or around sections of some neighbouring back gardens.

The inquest heard that the time stamp on the footage was incorrect, but Craig said he watched it for about 10 minutes and could not see any sign of Noah moving around the area.

Referring to the CCTV material, he said: "From what I viewed, there was no value in it."

He also explained that he watched the footage on a mobile phone and not on a monitor.

It has previously been stated at the inquest that the PSNI was not aware of the camera at the rear of the house until after the inquest opened at the end of January 2026.

A lawyer for Noah's mother, Fiona, pointed out that the witness made a statement the year after Noah's death and made no reference to viewing CCTV footage from the rear of number 85.

She said he only mentioned it in a second statement which he presented to the inquest after the matter was raised at a previous hearing of the coroner's court in February 2026.

The barrister said "the revelation" in February that a CCTV camera had been positioned at the rear of the property was a surprise to those involved in the inquest proceedings.

She said it "came as something of a concern" and she asked Craig why he did not mention it in his first statement to the inquest or why he did not bring it to the attention of anyone before it was raised at the inquest earlier this year.

The police witness admitted it "was poor on my part" but he explained he passed the information about watching the rear-view footage from 85 Northwood Road to two higher ranked colleagues because he was going to assist in the search for Noah.

He said he did not know why his colleagues did not pass on the information.

Craig added that he recommended that the footage he watched on a mobile phone should also be downloaded and viewed on a bigger screen.

But he repeated that if he had seen any sign of Noah's movements on the rear-view CCTV footage at the time he would have noted it and put it in his first statement to the inquest.

The witness also agreed with a barrister for the PSNI that he did not expect his own involvement in the CCTV searches for Noah to be "the last word" on the issue.

Craig also described seeing Noah on a camera from the front of the same house.

In his statement to the inquest, he said Noah was running up in the direction of a neighbouring home, towards the rear of the house.

A lawyer for the coroner clarified that the young boy was walking at the time, possibly quickly.