Officer tells inquest he watched CCTV of naked youth running toward wasteland

By Jonathan McCambridge, Press Association

A police constable has told the Noah Donohoe inquest that he viewed CCTV footage of a naked youth jumping off his bike and running towards wasteland.

Constable Morrow told a court that he had attended Northwood Road in north Belfast on the night after Noah disappeared in June 2020.

The inquest at Belfast Coroner’s Court into the death of the schoolboy, which is being heard with a jury, is now in its fourth 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, six days after leaving 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 drowning.

The officer said he was on duty at 11 pm on June 22nd when he was sent to Northwood Road to make CCTV inquiries.

Mr Morrow said he was approached by a resident who said he had footage on his mobile phone from his domestic CCTV.

The constable watched the footage, which he said showed a male cycling up Northwood Road shortly after 6pm on the previous evening.

He said: “The male appeared to be younger from his stature.

“However, at no point did I see the male’s face to confirm age.

“I observed that the male had no clothes on and jumped off his bike and ran between houses and the direction of wasteland behind the street.”

Mr Morrow added that he was informed by the resident the footage was around three minutes slow.

He told the court he could not seize the footage at the time as the resident did not know how to download it.

Counsel for Fiona Donohoe, Brenda Campbell KC, questioned the officer on why he had no handwritten notes of the incident.

She also asked him why he did not immediately do a timecheck on the footage.

The officer said he took the resident at his word that the footage was three minutes slow.

The officer said he had no further involvement in the inquiries.