![\"Noah](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/BWCEPTGPBJJZ3AYKNEAJQEZFNQ.jpg\")
Noah Donohoe was found dead in a storm drain in 2020 <\/p>\nA senior PSNI officer has conceded the mother of Noah Donohoe is \u201cin a position of not having answers\u201d about the death of her son because of \u201cmistakes made\u201d by police.<\/p>\n
The lead investigator into the death and disappearance of the schoolboy said Fiona Donohoe was left \u201cwondering\u201d and he was \u201ctruly sorry\u201d that their relationship deteriorated.<\/p>\n
Noah, a pupil at St Malachy\u2019s College, was 14 when his naked body was found in a storm drain tunnel in north Belfast on June 27 2020, six days after he left home on his bike to meet two friends in the Cavehill area of the city.<\/p>\n
Noah Donohoe was found dead in a storm drain in 2020 <\/p>\n
A post-mortem examination found the cause of death was drowning.<\/p>\n
Over the course of 20 weeks, 76 witnesses have given evidence to the jury at inquest at Belfast Coroners Court, a number of whom have remarked on the highly unorthodox nature of the case.<\/p>\n PSNI Detective Chief Inspector Phillips became the senior investigating officer (SIO) in relation to Noah\u2019s case on Wednesday 24 June 2020, when it was transferred to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).<\/p>\n At that point, he had been missing for three days.<\/p>\n Counsel for the Coroner, Peter Coll KC, put it to Mr Phillips: \u201cThe situation as we\u2019re in this court room now, six months on, the outcome of the police investigation is that police are not able to provide the answer as to why Noah did what we know he did, why he behaved as he did and why he died as he did.\u201d<\/p>\n He replied: \u201cYes, unfortunately so.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Coll then asked if, with the benefit of hindsight, there is \u201canything that you feel has been missed by police at the time as you went along that has negatively impacted on your ability to understand and present an explanation to the jury as to what happened?\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Phillips said: \u201cThere are broadly things that we have missed and mistakes made which has left Fiona in a position of not having answers.<\/p>\n \u201cIn terms of what that would have told us in terms of what happened to Noah \u2013 I don\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/p>\n Referring to a CCTV camera which police failed to procure footage from, Mr Phillips said: \u201cI\u2019m sorry, that should have been found.<\/p>\n \u201cFiona shouldn\u2019t be sat here six years on wondering was there a camera there and what did it show,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He added: \u201cWith the benefit of hindsight we did everything we could to find him and I\u2019m content that the PSNI did everything we could to find him as quickly as we could.\u201d<\/p>\n The officer went on: \u201cCertainly as time has gone on I regularly think if there was something I could have done to manage my relationship with Fiona in a different way because it deteriorated so quickly.<\/p>\n \u201cI am truly sorry for any part that I played in that.<\/p>\n \u201cNoah\u2019s case is unusual enough as it is, nobody should be in this position.<\/p>\n \u201cI think six years on, I don\u2019t know what else we could have done to help us understand what happened to him and why.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Phillips also said \u201cone of the biggest mistakes made\u201d was that he \u201cdidn\u2019t challenge mum\u2019s account enough\u201d meaning police \u201cdidn\u2019t look at (Noah\u2019s) actions in the days and weeks prior to his disappearance\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not for one moment saying Fiona did anything wrong, I should have been more inquisitive into his home life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Mr Coll raised a police log showing discussion of whether the case should have been classed as \u201ccritical\u201d, with Mr Phillips saying: \u201cCritical does not mean we think we\u2019ve done something wrong but critical means we have to put the structure in place for public reassurance.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are trying to identify where Noah is while also trying to manage an unparalleled amount of public interest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe amount of rumours and conspiracy that was flooding the public that Noah had been kidnapped by various parties, that he had been murdered.\u201d<\/p>\n He said there were rumours of \u201cretribution attack\u201d and police did not know where these were coming from.<\/p>\n \u201cThe critique was coming in from the public that we were in the wrong area, that we weren\u2019t doing enough, why hadn\u2019t we found him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Brenda Campbell KC, representing Ms Donohoe, asked if Mr Phillips agreed \u201cthere is an answer\u201d to what happened to Noah.<\/p>\n When the officer asked for clarity, Ms Campbell said \u201cMr Coll just summarised to you that police are unable to provide an answer but there must be an answer\u201d, to which Mr Phillips agreed.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, whether or not we could have found it but we didn\u2019t find the answer, no,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Ms Campbell went on to ask Mr Phillips a series of short questions \u2013 does he know where Noah went when he was captured on CCTV leaving his home in the early hours of 21 June, did anyone see him, did he go into a property, where did he leave his flipflops, how did he get them back, why was his belt hanging loose on his return and to what extent what was that trip linked to his disappearance later that same day.<\/p>\n Mr Phillips answered \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d and to the final question said \u201cno, we should have found those answers\u201d.<\/p>\n Later, Ms Campbell put it to the the officer that already by that stage in her questioning he had \u201canswered on more than 30 occasions \u2018I don\u2019t know\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are many unanswered questions in Noah\u2019s investigation\u201d, she said to which Mr Phillips agreed.<\/p>\n He also agreed when she highlighted it was his \u201cjob to find and gather evidence\u201d.<\/p>\n Ms Campbell also raised questions on the police investigation of Daryl Paul, who was attempting to sell Noah\u2019s laptop, and in relation to Noah\u2019s green North Face coat, which has never been found.<\/p>\n She said Mr Phillips was \u201cnot in a club of one\u201d for not mentioning the coat in various police log entries, saying there was not \u201cany sense of priority\u201d in locating it.<\/p>\n She asked if an individual having both Noah\u2019s bag and laptop as well as his coat would be a \u201csignificant coincidence\u201d, to which Mr Phillips agreed.<\/p>\n The lead investigator also said a junior officer, Constable Wharry, was \u201cincorrect\u201d to tell the inquest when he gave evidence in March that he had been told to look for the green coat after being \u201cbriefed\u201d at Musgrave Street police station by a group including Mr Phillips before giving evidence.<\/p>\n Ms Campbell said that before Mr Wharry\u2019s evidence to the inquest the green coat \u201cappears nowhere\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cGiven you said it would clearly be a concern if someone had picked up Noah\u2019s bag and coat from different locations why don\u2019t we see it?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n Mr Phillips said there was nothing to indicate Mr Paul had the coat and when police searched his flat \u201cit\u2019s not there\u201d.<\/p>\n Ms Campbell further pressed asking if finding the coat meets \u201cthe threshold of double checking the (CCTV) footage available to you in a circumstance where this child\u2019s death is completely unexplained?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re two separate issues,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cDaryl finding Noah\u2019s bag and Noah\u2019s disappearance and death \u2013 there\u2019s nothing to suggest those two are linked.\u201d<\/p>\n The inquest has previously heard about CCTV footage showing Noah leaving his home in Belfast at about 3.30am on Sunday June 21 2020 and returning just over half an hour later, without his headphones and flip flops.<\/p>\n This was not watched by police until January 2022.<\/p>\n Ms Campbell asked if the officer felt that was not \u201cimportant enough to watch\u201d.<\/p>\n He replied: \u201cThat was the wrong decision, we should have viewed it and we didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n \u201cThat should have been a priority (viewing) 24 hours around, if not more.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should have viewed it and I can only apologise.\u201d<\/p>\n Over the course of questioning Ms Campbell put it to the officer that \u201cit should never be for a mother in Fiona Donohoe\u2019s position to force an investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Phillips said: \u201cIt should never be and I would disagree that she had to force it, we were investigating.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cI fully accept that things have been brought to our attention that I missed and that shouldn\u2019t have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A senior PSNI officer has conceded the mother of Noah Donohoe is \u201cin a position of not having…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538670,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[663,9,10,219716,13,14,147878,6,20199,11,12,15,16,5,41020,954,30,7,8,41016,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-538669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-belfast","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-cavehill","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-fiona-donohoe","tag-headlines","tag-inquest","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-noah-donohoe","tag-northern-ireland","tag-psni","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-ulster","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116761859155762050","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"‘Gary](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/BZ5HYAOVVNODLNISETGEZOUQI4.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781644457_606_Y4EXQ6ELXJHCZDDKFQZWMWZOWA.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/YCXVITC3YZN3JDSKZHGJEDZWIA.jpg\")
The Cavehill area of Belfast where Noah Donohoe went missing in 2020 <\/p>\n