Retired Police Inspector Haunted by Noah Donohoe's 'Naked and Afraid' Storm Drain Ordeal
A retired police inspector has told an inquest he remains haunted by the thought of 14-year-old Noah Donohoe being "naked and afraid" before his body was discovered in a Belfast storm drain. Retired inspector Menary, who previously managed the Police Service Northern Ireland's hazardous environment search team, gave emotional testimony at Belfast Coroner's Court about the 2020 search operation.
The Tragic Discovery in North Belfast
Noah Donohoe, a pupil at St Malachy's College, was just 14 years old when his naked body was located in a storm drain tunnel in north Belfast in June 2020. The discovery came six days after he left his home on his bicycle to meet two friends in the Cavehill area. A post-mortem examination later determined his cause of death was drowning.
The inquest into the schoolboy's death, now in its fourth week and being heard with a jury, has heard detailed evidence about the extensive search operation that preceded the tragic discovery. Mr Menary described how his team resumed searching a stretch of the storm drain network on June 25, four days after Noah was reported missing.
'Horrendous' Conditions in the Tunnel Network
Mr Menary provided vivid descriptions of the "horrendous" conditions within the tunnel system where Noah was eventually found. He explained that the tunnel could be accessed from a culvert entrance in Northwood Linear Park in north Belfast, close to where Noah had last been seen on the Sunday before his disappearance.
"It's freezing cold," Mr Menary told the jury. "My flood suit at the time is sealed, but doesn't fully seal around the waist, so when I was lying down the water was coming over the top of me and up into the bottom of my jacket."
When asked by counsel for the coroner Declan Quinn what it would have been like for someone to be in the tunnel without protective clothing, Mr Menary responded: "Somebody doing that with no clothes would have been absolutely horrendous and you would have been absolutely frozen."
The Extensive Search Operation
Mr Menary emphasized that at the initial stage of his involvement, he was participating in a search operation rather than a body recovery mission. He stated there was "no evidence" at that point that Noah had entered the storm drain system.
"We were looking for anything strange or out of the ordinary within the culvert," he explained to the court.
The retired officer described searching in an area underneath Seaview football pitch, home of Crusaders FC. He detailed how the water would have continually come over anyone in the tunnel, causing disorientation from the cold and slowing movement.
Mr Menary revealed that his search team had lifted manhole covers on either side of the tunnel where Noah's body was later found by Thursday afternoon, but discovered no evidence he was in the tunnel at that time. The search was then suspended due to rising tidal levels in the tunnel.
Emotional Impact on Search Team
The retired officer spoke emotionally about the impact on his team, noting that several colleagues came to work on their day off on the Friday to resume the operation. He said the level of silt in the tunnel was quite deep, which prevented a camera from being deployed and would have impacted his team's equipment.
"The longer you work on this job, the more personal it does become," Mr Menary told the court. "Eventually when we heard following Noah's recovery there was a real sense of sadness that they had found Noah in the system."
He added: "I suppose, as the search went on, there was a thought, he'll never be found here, it's too far gone, it's too far down the system."
Unprecedented Circumstances
Mr Quinn asked the retired officer if he had ever experienced in his career "a person of any age, particularly a child, entering a culvert system like this, at its start point, naked and managed to travel to such a location downstream?"
Mr Menary responded simply: "Never."
He told the inquest he had never been part of a case where someone had travelled so far underground in a storm drain, making the circumstances particularly unusual and challenging for search teams.
Lasting Psychological Impact
The retired inspector described his reaction upon learning of Noah's discovery as "a real sense of sadness" because he knew what the teenager had gone through.
"We had taken those steps that Noah had taken and there was a real amount of sadness," he said. "There was a sense of relief too that Noah had finally been found and brought home."
Mr Menary acknowledged there was also "frustration" within his team that they had not located Noah themselves during their search efforts.
Haunting Memories
When asked about the emotional impact on his team, Mr Menary said: "We reflect on all the things we do, and we would be robots if we didn't. Being down there and actually taking that route, we had lights, we had everything else. To think of somebody doing that alone, naked, afraid in the dark, I still think about it today."
He added with evident emotion: "I can't even begin to imagine the hurt, the difficulty, the daily pain that all this would cause, I think about it all the time."
The retired officer noted that the majority of people on his search team had children around Noah's age, making the case particularly personal for those involved in the operation.
Professional Assessment
When asked by Mr Quinn if he now believed his team had carried out the operation in as "professional and as urgent a matter as you could," Mr Menary responded: "I do."
He explained that it was eventually decided to bring in the police dive team to continue the search, at which point his hazardous environment search team was stood down from the operation.
The inquest into Noah Donohoe's death continues at Belfast Coroner's Court as more evidence is presented to the jury about the circumstances surrounding the tragic incident that claimed the life of the 14-year-old schoolboy.
