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During the inquest on Wednesday, a police officer who had participated in the search of an underground tunnel for missing schoolboy Noah Donohoe grew emotional while recalling the harsh conditions Noah would have faced after his disappearance more than five years ago. The 14-year-old was discovered dead in a tunnel in north Belfast nearly a week after he went missing in June 2020.
Philip Menary, a former PSNI inspector, was a member of the hazardous environment police team that conducted the search underground. While providing testimony at the inquest, Menary described the tunnel environment near the Seaview football pitch, where Noah’s body was eventually recovered. He called it “heartbreaking” to think about what Noah endured while navigating through such terrain.
Menary detailed the overwhelming “complete blackness” inside the tunnel, which was cluttered with debris like branches, large rocks, and other obstacles submerged in flowing water. He explained that attempting to progress through the tunnel would have been “exhausting,” requiring a person to constantly “figure and feel” their way through the darkness and hazards. At times, one would have to crawl on all fours amid slippery and uneven ground, risking falls and disorientation as cold water continuously flowed over them.
As he spoke, Menary became visibly emotional, pausing to reflect on Noah’s circumstances. He termed the conditions under the Seaview football pitch as “horrendous” and described the sludge and silt where Noah’s body was found near the M2 motorway, saying it “just sucks your feet under” in “absolutely freezing” water. When shown a photograph of the pitch-black tunnel, Menary recounted how the team felt a “real sense of sadness” upon finding Noah’s body, fully aware of the difficult journey the boy had taken, and imagining the isolation he must have felt, alone and unclothed in such a dark and hostile environment
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