A detective constable involved in the initial 48-hour search for Noah Donohoe has told an inquest that his appearance on a leisure centre's CCTV footage appears to have been "missed" by police during the first critical day after he vanished. The revelation emerged during the third week of proceedings at Belfast Coroner's Court, where a jury is hearing evidence about the circumstances surrounding the 14-year-old's tragic death.
Critical CCTV Timing Discrepancy Revealed
Noah Donohoe, a pupil at St Malachy's College, was found dead in a north Belfast storm drain in June 2020, six days after leaving his home on his bicycle to meet friends in the Cavehill area. A post-mortem examination later established drowning as the cause of death. His mother, Fiona Donohoe, has attended every day of the inquest proceedings.
On Thursday, Detective Constable Keatley continued her evidence, detailing her role in investigating Noah's disappearance and communicating with his mother in the immediate aftermath. Counsel for Ms Donohoe, Brenda Campbell KC, presented police logs showing that officers had checked CCTV at the Grove leisure centre on Shore Road at 3.15pm on the day after Noah went missing, recording "negative results".
"Basic Policing" Oversight Suggested
Ms Campbell then revealed that Noah was actually visible on that same footage at 6.01pm, suggesting a significant timing discrepancy had caused officers to miss him. "The camera footage is around 43 minutes behind real time," she explained, adding that checking whether CCTV systems operate in real-time would be "basic policing."
This meant that events from around 6pm could be viewed on the leisure centre's system at 5.17pm. "If an officer checked the camera time for 6pm rather than real time, they are looking at a period 40 minutes after Noah has passed. And so he's never going to be on it," Ms Campbell told the court.
Detective Constable Keatley acknowledged she was not personally tasked with checking CCTV and could not comment on what other officers had examined. However, she agreed with Ms Campbell's assertion that Noah "may have been missed on that Grove footage" because he was visible at 6.01pm when police had recorded a negative result.
Conflicting Police Log Entries
Further confusion emerged when Ms Campbell highlighted subsequent police log entries. An hour and a half after the initial negative result, another entry described the Grove leisure centre footage as "poor" with a "30-minute time difference." By 6.41pm that same day, a log stated: "Enquiries conducted at Grove leisure centre, no CCTV available at this time, no staff present to operate it."
Ms Campbell suggested this created a "grey area" for police regarding whether the footage was genuinely negative or whether camera timing issues had compromised the search. She pressed Detective Constable Keatley on the "level of urgency" with which officers pursued CCTV evidence, to which the constable responded: "My understanding was that everyone was very invested in this investigation, but I can't speak for crews I didn't see or wasn't with."
Emotional Testimony About Mother's Anguish
Earlier in the proceedings, counsel for the coroner, Declan Quinn, questioned Detective Constable Keatley about her communications with Fiona Donohoe during the first 48 hours after Noah's disappearance. He described the situation as "every mother's worst nightmare" and a "highly emotional" scenario, which the constable acknowledged.
She agreed she had developed a rapport with Ms Donohoe and felt personally invested in the case. When asked if she recalled Ms Donohoe describing her son as "weepy," the constable said she remembered the word "sensitive" but no other specific descriptions.
Heartbreaking Phone Incident Recalled
In particularly poignant testimony, Detective Constable Keatley described recovering Noah's mobile phone after it was found and charged by a member of the public. Shortly after police seized the device, it began ringing with "Mum" displayed on the screen.
"I didn't want her getting excited," the constable told the inquest, explaining why she answered the call herself. Mr Quinn suggested this was especially "difficult" as Ms Donohoe would have hoped her son might answer. Detective Constable Keatley agreed, saying she had decided to answer "quickly" to prevent false hope.
Ms Campbell acknowledged that the constable had done her best in challenging circumstances, noting she had communicated "really difficult news" with Ms Donohoe during those initial 48 hours. The inquest continues as further evidence is examined about the search for Noah Donohoe and the circumstances leading to his tragic death.
