Noah Donohoe CCTV footage released in appeal for information

A coroner has released a number of videos that show teenager Noah Donohoe leaving his house in the early hours of the day he disappeared, and returning barefoot and without his headphones.

Mr Justice Rooney is investigating the death of the 14-year-old boy whose body was found in a storm drain in north Belfast in June 2020, almost a week after he went missing.

The coroner has asked for anyone who knows where he was going, who he was meeting or where his belongings went to come forth with the information.

CCTV footage shows the schoolboy leaving his home in south Belfast at about 03:34 (BST) on Sunday 21 June 2020 wearing flip flops, a t-shirt and shorts and carrying headphones.

The footage shows Noah Donohoe returning to his home at Fitzroy Avenue at about 04:08 on the same morning barefoot and without his headphones.

The coroner's appeal states that when Noah leaves his home he appears to turn right, walking west towards Queens University.

Noah is next captured on CCTV, returning home, on University Street, coming from the direction of Ormeau Road and walking in the direction of Queen's University.

Then he turns left onto Dudley Street and then right onto Fitzroy Avenue and returning home.

The coroner has appealed for information about where Noah went on that morning, whether he met anyone, what happened to his flip flips and/or his headphones and whether Noah Donohoe had been out early in the morning on any other occasion.

Noah Donohoe's mother posted on social media: "As you can imagine this is beyond difficult but it needs to be shared."

Fiona Donohoe questioned why the footage was released on Friday, five years later after her son was found.

"Why was it not released the week Noah was missing?"

She added that she was "only made aware of this two years after Noah's death".

In October it was decided that an inquest into the death of the Belfast schoolboy would be postponed until 2026.

The inquest before a jury was due to begin on 3 November.

A post-mortem examination found that his death was due to drowning.

The inquest process has been protracted over the past four to five years.

Last year, a senior coroner, Joe McCrisken, recused himself from continuing to preside at the inquest.

The hearing at the beginning of October was the latest in a lengthy series of preliminary hearings into the case.

Some previous hearings have heard challenges to the granting of a public interest immunity (PII) certificate which would allow the PSNI to withhold some information from the inquest.

Several thousand people joined the schoolboy's family at a protest about the issue in Belfast city centre in 2022.