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During the inquest into the death of Belfast schoolboy Noah Donohoe, a police officer described the moment she believed that Noah’s mother, Fiona Donohoe, realized her son had died. Detective Constable Keatley communicated regularly with Fiona throughout the two days following Noah’s disappearance on 21 June 2020.
Noah’s body was discovered in a storm drain in north Belfast on 27 June 2020, six days after he went missing. The post-mortem report concluded that the cause of death was drowning. Det Con Keatley recounted informing Fiona multiple times about the recovery of Noah’s phone and clothing. The officer explained that she had answered an incoming call from “Mum” on Noah’s phone, which had been found powered off but was switched back on at that moment. She wanted to manage Fiona’s expectations carefully so that the mother would not become overly hopeful, stating, “I didn’t want her getting excited.”
In addition, the officer described making a separate phone call to Fiona to inform her about finding Noah’s clothes. She felt it was important to convey this information directly, to prevent Fiona from hearing it from other sources. Det Con Keatley remarked that at this point, Fiona seemed to suspect that Noah “possibly, maybe was no longer alive.”
During the proceedings, the police officer was commended by a barrister representing Fiona for the compassionate support offered to the distressed mother and for managing difficult conversations. However, the same barrister raised concerns about the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s (PSNI) investigation, particularly the slow progress in recovering important CCTV footage soon after Noah’s disappearance. The footage in question was from Grove Leisure Centre on York Road, situated along the route Noah was believed to have taken. It was noted that this footage, potentially crucial to the initial investigation, was not collected until several days later. A barrister for the PSNI countered by saying that Noah’s last known location had been identified at Northwood Road the evening he disappeared, and police efforts had focused on that area, including conducting house-to-house inquiries. The inquest is scheduled to resume on Monday, 16 February
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