Experts testifying at the inquest into the death of 14-year-old Noah Donohoe have stated that there are still too many unknowns to fully explain his behaviour before he died. However, the four psychology and psychiatry professionals told Belfast Coroner's Court that they have ruled out possible explanations such as illegal substance use and psychosis.
Noah Donohoe left his home on his bicycle on Sunday, June 21, 2020, intending to meet school friends at Cavehill in Belfast. CCTV footage captured him cycling through the city centre and then heading north. In the final clip, the last known footage of Noah before his disappearance, he is seen riding the bike naked. His naked body was discovered in an underground water tunnel on June 27, six days after he went missing. A post-mortem examination indicated that drowning was the likely cause of death.
Psychologist’s Perspective
On Tuesday, psychologist Dr. Louise Bowers told the court: "It feels like there is so much that we still don't know. As psychologists we like to have answers and we like to have everything tied up with a bow on top and this is one of those cases where it just isn't like that; we almost know less than we do know."
Dr. Bowers revealed that she only recently learned Noah had left his house the night before his disappearance, adding that this detail "appears to have been a little bit overlooked." She elaborated: "Understanding where he went, whether he met anybody, if he did meet anybody, what conversations took place and what happened to his flip flops and headphones, from a psychological perspective and a relational perspective appear quite important to me. But I accept that we simply don't know and it may be that we're unlikely to ever know the answers to those questions, so I have to live with that uncertainty. From a psychological perspective, having those answers would have helped me a great deal in trying to understand what happened to Noah." She expressed a "sadness" that she could not assist in getting closer to the answers.
Psychiatric Evidence
Psychiatrist Dr. Seena Fazel told jurors that the experts have excluded some possible explanations, including head injury, psychosis, illegal substance use, and other mental disorders. He added: "At the same time, we're not able to go further and provide a defined explanation."
Another psychiatrist, Dr. Girish Vaidya, said Noah's behaviour "does defy an explanation within the bounds of mental health as we know it." He continued: "There are a lot of unknowns, and those unknowns add to the difficulty in coming to a conclusion, but from what we know so far, from a mental health point of view, there isn't any evidence to suggest that it was a mental health issue that caused him to behave the way that he did."
Psychiatrist Dr. Richard Church noted an "absence of any clear mental disorder that might help explain his disappearance and tragic death." He had earlier told jurors that he agreed "there is nothing to support" evidence that Noah took his own life, but added "the possibility isn't zero." He clarified: "The possibility of something is quite different from the likelihood of something. So I wouldn't want to completely extinguish the possibility of different contributors to these very unusual and largely unexplained events."
Dr. Fazel concluded that "there isn't evidence to support that Noah intended to die from suicide."
