Noah Donohoe’s phone location relayed to searchers after seven hours – inquest

By Claudia Savage, Press Association

The last known location of Noah Donohoe’s phone was relayed to search-and-rescue personnel seven hours after it was first received by police, an inquest has heard.

Sean McCarry, the Community Rescue Service (CRS) regional commander, told the inquest into the death of the schoolboy that “time equals survivability” in searches and that he “would expect” police to pass on all relevant information as soon as possible.

Noah was aged 14 when his naked body was found in a storm drain tunnel in north Belfast, six days after he left home on his bike to meet two friends in the Cavehill area in June 2020.

The inquest at Belfast Coroner’s Court, which is being heard with a jury, is in its fifth week.

McCarry told the inquest he felt “massive responsibility as search manager because a decision or lack of decision, piece of information or lack of information is a difference of life and death”.

He reaffirmed the importance of his organisation getting information as soon as possible from the police and said this would have been standard practice.

During questioning by counsel for Noah’s mother Fiona Donohoe, Brenda Campbell, McCarry did stress that if he felt there was a piece of information he needed he “probably would have become quite a pain until I got it”.

He was first called out by police at approximately 3.40am on June 22nd, Noah having been reported missing by his mother on the evening of June 21st.

On this initial call, he said he was given “nothing else” from police to suggest they should search anywhere but Cavehill, but that this was not out of the ordinary as it “would be difficult enough at 3am in the morning to have immediate CCTV”.

It was established, during questioning, that when the CRS received information from police around 11am on June 22 from the TLU (Telecoms Liaison Unit) giving an updated location as to where Noah’s phone was last located, search teams were deployed to that area but that searching also continued around Cavehill.

McCarry said it was “quite uplifting and quite reassuring” to get some more information and that when CCTV emerged later, North Queen Street became Noah’s official “place last seen”.

He added that at this stage, search operations would still have been “heavily reliant” on information from police.

Campbell said that police failed to spot Noah on the CCTV procured at Grove Leisure Centre and showed jurors a map that would have been produced if that location had become Noah’s place last seen, that would have taken in Northwood Road where his body was eventually found, as well as where his bike and helmet were located.

McCarry said if that information was available, they “would have deployed another team” into that area and “certainly would have found those items, they were in sight of everyone”, adding that it “may well have” led searchers to Northwood Road sooner.

Campbell presented a hypothetical to Mr McCarry, asking if they “might have been down culvert at 9am” on June 22nd, had they been given the TLU information and corresponding CCTV when he was first called.

McCarry replied: “Hypothetically, yes, but there has to be a balance.”

Campbell said “if things are missed, they need to be exposed to public scrutiny”, and McCarry responded “yes and fixed”, adding: “I fully support that if anything can be changed, I want to understand what that is so it never happens again.”

The inquest was then shown an email from a TLU officer to PSNI officers working on Noah’s case on June 22nd at 3:18am, attaching a location found from his mobile at 7:41pm on June 21st.

The corresponding log from the TLU showed that the police were also called to ensure receipt and understanding of this email.

McCarry said he was seeing this for the first time and that he was under the impression that when it was presented to him at 11am on June 22nd, it was a new development.

He said he “would expect that” it would have been sent when received by police.

Campbell suggested that if he had that location at 4am, he “wouldn’t necessarily have been putting boots in Cavehill in the same numbers”.

McCarry said he “can’t disagree with that”, adding it “may not have made a difference, but we don’t know that”.

Campbell said: “Noah’s mum doesn’t know why at four o’clock in the morning, you weren’t told about that TLU map and neither do you.”

McCarry said that was correct.

Campbell added that Donohoe and McCarry were both unaware as to why the TLU map “wasn’t urgently married up with CCTV in those early-morning hours”.

McCarry agreed with Campbell’s restatement of his earlier testimony that “delay can be the difference between time and death” in missing person searches.