Recordings of anonymous phone calls made to police about an attempt to sell Noah Donohoe’s laptop while the schoolboy was missing have been played at his inquest. One woman told Belfast Coroner’s Court that she had not made the calls, despite a claim from another witness. She also denied that she or her family had been threatened before she gave evidence to the court.
The inquest into the death of the schoolboy, which is being heard with a jury, has now entered its 10th week. Noah, a pupil at St Malachy’s College, was 14 when his naked body was found in a storm drain tunnel in north Belfast in June 2020, six days after he left home on his bike to meet two friends in the Cavehill area of the city. A post-mortem examination found the cause of death was likely to be drowning.
Proceedings resumed on Monday afternoon with evidence from witnesses about anonymous calls made to police in the days after Noah disappeared. One witness, referred to as AC2, gave a statement saying he had got to know another witness, AC3, through playing online bingo during lockdown. The statement said AC3 had visited him at his father’s flat on June 21 2020, when Daryl Paul had arrived and attempted to sell them a laptop. Paul, of Cliftonville Avenue, has previously pleaded guilty to stealing a rucksack containing Noah’s laptop and school books.
The witness said: “The fact that there was no charger and it wasn’t his laptop rang alarm bells for me.” AC2 said he had no interest in buying the laptop. His statement said AC3 and Daryl Paul then left the flat at the same time. Days later, AC2 was told by AC3 that the laptop sounded the same as one which Noah had been carrying when he disappeared. After speaking to another friend, they decided to report the matter to police. The statement said: “I remember feeling sick about the whole thing.”
Recordings of two anonymous phone calls, on June 24 and 25, were then played to the jury. In the first recording, the caller reported an attempt by Paul to sell the laptop at a flat. The caller said Paul had a plastic bag containing a rucksack, the laptop, a green North Face coat and a school book with Noah Donohoe’s name on it. The caller said: “I’m just really worried about this guy. If he knows something about where that boy is.” In the second recording, the caller expressed concern that the information from the previous call had not been acted upon.
The witness said she had heard recordings of the first call and stated: “I can say I did not make this call to police, it does not sound like my voice on the call.” Counsel to the coroner Peter Coll asked the witness why she believed AC2 and Paul had given statements claiming she was the one who had contacted police. Barrister for Paul, Ian Skelt KC, said his client claims AC3 had given him a lift on the evening he had attempted to sell the laptop. He asked: “Do you think it is possible that that happened and you have just forgotten about (it)?”
