Police 'missed' Noah Donohoe on CCTV filmed minutes before disappearance

A police officer missed Noah Donohoe on CCTV footage he examined the day after the schoolboy's disappearance in June 2020, an inquest has heard.

CCTV cameras were operating on the York Road in north Belfast on the day of his disappearance.

Noah cycled along York Road minutes before he went missing at nearby Northwood Road.

On Wednesday, Constable Day gave evidence at the inquest into the boy's death and acknowledged he did not see Noah on CCTV footage from the Grove Wellbeing Centre or on separate footage recorded at a funeral directors on the opposite side of the same road.

The inquest has footage from the Grove Wellbeing Centre, which shows Noah cycling past the centre minutes before his disappearance.

It is understood the footage from the funeral directors is no longer available.

However, a view from the same camera position, taken in 2025, shows that the camera captures a clear view of the main road as well as the front of the adjacent Grove Wellbeing Centre.

It also captures the area around the entrance to Skegoneill Avenue, the point at which Noah left the York Road.

A barrister for Fiona Donohoe, Noah's mother, has made the case that this suggests the camera at the funeral directors would also have captured Noah cycling past, but Day "missed" him when he viewed the footage the day after Noah disappeared.

The lawyer emphasised the importance of any additional footage of Noah's movements in the minutes before he went missing.

The inquest was told about differences between the timings on the CCTV cameras and real time, which could explain why the footage of Noah was missed.

Day accepted he did not enquire about any time difference when he viewed the footage.

As a result, the barrister said: "You missed him."

Day replied: "I didn't see him on the footage I viewed."

When he was asked if a check for any potential issues around time differences on the footage he viewed was "pretty fundamental policing", the witness replied: "Yes."

He said the quality of the CCTV footage from the Grove Wellbeing Centre was "very poor".

Asked by the coroner, Justice Rooney, if he made checks about the accuracy of the times on the cameras, Day replied: "I don't recall, no."

Earlier, commenting on the failure to see Noah on the footage, the coroner noted: "It was missed, it is quite clear it was missed."

The inquest was also shown CCTV footage of Noah cycling along the Lower Ormeau Road in south Belfast shortly after he left his home on the day of his disappearance.

As the footage was shown on screens around the court room, Fiona Donohoe, Noah's mother, cast her gaze downwards while the remainder of the room observed part of her son's final journey.