{"id":788674,"date":"2026-02-25T19:37:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T19:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/788674\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T19:37:54","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T19:37:54","slug":"rescue-service-volunteers-hoped-to-find-noah-donohoe-alive-inquest-told","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/788674\/","title":{"rendered":"Rescue service volunteers hoped to find Noah Donohoe alive, inquest told"},"content":{"rendered":"

The inquest into the death of schoolboy Noah Donohoe has been told the culvert in the area where he disappeared was \u201ceasy to get into\u201d and every effort was made to find him alive.<\/p>\n

The 14-year-old\u2019s naked body was discovered in a storm drain tunnel in north Belfast in June 2020, six days after he left home on his bike to meet two friends in the Cavehill area of the city.<\/p>\n

A post-mortem examination found the cause of death was drowning.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

A team of\u00a0Community Rescue Service (CRS) volunteers was deployed to the Northwood Road area after being alerted that Noah\u2019s bicycle had been discovered, Belfast Coroner\u2019s Court heard.<\/p>\n

Sean McCarry, the CRS regional commander, described the 1,000m distance where Noah was eventually found as \u201ca long way down the drain\u201d but the searchers had hoped the schoolboy would be found alive.<\/p>\n

When asked at the inquest, which is in its fifth week, if he thought Noah\u2019s body would have been found so far down the tunnel, he replied \u201cdefinitely not\u201d and it was \u201cfar beyond\u201d what he would have expected.<\/p>\n

Mr McCarry said he was \u201cextremely grateful\u201d that Noah\u2019s body was brought back to his family who are looking for an explanation of the circumstances of his death.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI would not have been surprised if police had stopped the search at 200m, at 300m, at 400m and we could be sitting today not knowing where Noah was.\u201d<\/p>\n

His team alerted the police to the culvert on waste ground behind some local houses\u00a0as it was \u201ceasy to get into\u201d, as the searchers spotted the grille on top \u201cwas unlocked and could be easily opened\u201d.<\/p>\n

The volunteers suggested the culvert should be searched as they felt that a slim\u00a0adult could pass through it.<\/p>\n

He said\u00a0it needed to be searched by a confined space-trained and equipped team.<\/p>\n

A trained CRS volunteer, who was fitted with a harness and attached to a line, went in to the culvert as far as they could.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

They went a short distance before having to withdraw for safety reasons.<\/p>\n

The CRS team also carried out\u00a0a \u201ccall and wait\u201d process, in which they shouted down the tunnel and then paused to see if there was a response.<\/p>\n

Mr McCarry said a \u201cmassive effort\u201d was made to find Noah, adding:\u00a0\u201cIf I make a single mistake here that could be the difference between life and death \u2013\u00a0that is on the forefront of my mind, and the people and the police I work with (and) it is in the forefront of their mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

He described finding Noah as the \u201cpriority\u201d, adding: \u201cIf I felt there was anything else that should have been done \u2013 I would have been raising that.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least 100 CRS volunteers were called out to the\u00a0Cavehill area, which was the initial focus of the search for Noah.<\/p>\n

Updated information made the search for the missing youngster \u201cfluid\u201d, the court heard.<\/p>\n

It included a call to deploy searchers in the North Queen Street area where a phone was found.<\/p>\n

Police then contacted Mr McCarry in the early evening to say Noah\u2019s bicycle was found in Northwood Road.<\/p>\n

Mr McCarry said the search team of volunteers are often called out to Cavehill and are familiar with its dense terrain, which he said included passable areas but \u201cthe rest is sometimes like the jungle\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Noah\u2019s disappearance, which happened against the backdrop of the Covid lockdown, triggered a large response from the North Belfast community who\u00a0came out of their homes\u00a0in large numbers to try to find him.<\/p>\n

Mr McCarry said the CRS had \u201cfull support\u201d from the community.<\/p>\n

Earlier jurors watched a BBC documentary about the CRS whose volunteers described the search for Noah as \u201crelentless\u201d.<\/p>\n

Noah\u2019s mother Fiona Donohoe recalled\u00a0it as a \u201chorrible\u201d period, saying: \u201cHe got on his bike and I was able to hug him and tell him I loved him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI phoned and I knew if he wasn\u2019t answering his phone something wasn\u2019t right.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The inquest into the death of schoolboy Noah Donohoe has been told the culvert in the area where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788675,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[229502,41105,82666,229503,229504,1144,229505,1618,16,15],"class_list":["post-788674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-brenda-campbell-kc","tag-jordan-peterson","tag-noah-donohoe","tag-noah-donohoe-inquest","tag-north-queen-street","tag-northern-ireland","tag-peter-coll-kc","tag-psni","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116132964536128975","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788674"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788674\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}