Two officers did not look for CCTV during initial stages of Noah search

Two police officers have told an inquest into the death of Noah Donohoe that they did not look for CCTV footage during the initial stages of the search for the missing boy.

The body of the Belfast schoolboy was found in a water tunnel almost a week after he went missing in June 2020.

A police officer has described how he was shown CCTV footage of Noah cycling naked along Northwood Road in north Belfast on the evening of his disappearance.

Constable Stuart Morrow told the inquest that he was on the street for about half an hour the night after the schoolboy went missing, when a resident approached him to show him CCTV footage from a camera at his home.

The man's wife had earlier alerted the police about the CCTV footage being available.

Morrow explained that the resident told him that there was a difference of a few minutes between the time on the CCTV and real time.

When he was asked why he did not make further checks about the time difference, the witness explained that this would normally happen when the footage was being seized.

He also said he would have conducted other checks if he was told there was a time difference of several hours.

He said: "I was happy enough with the information that was received."

The witness also explained that he passed the information he received from the resident to colleagues who later took possession of the footage.

Morrow also accepted that he did not check the outside of the house for the location of the relevant CCTV camera at the front of the house - the one which captured Noah on the main street - or for any other cameras on the house.

It subsequently transpired that there was a second camera at another end of the house, pointing towards an entrance between the back of the house and a neighbouring house.

Another police witness, who also spoke to the same resident who provided the CCTV footage, agreed that he did not check for the locations of any CCTV cameras either.

Constable Jonathan Thompson said he felt the priority at that stage was to find the boy who was missing and appeared to be naked and disappeared into "a dense wooded area".

CCTV footage from the Cityside shopping complex (previously known as Yorkgate) in Belfast was played at the inquest showing Noah cycling along the area towards his final destination on the day of his disappearance.

Fiona Donohoe, the boy's mother, bowed her head while the footage was played before the coroner, Mr Justice Rooney, and the jury.

The inquest continues.