Witness who saw Noah Donohoe cycling naked thought it was a 'prank'

A witness has told an inquest into the death of Belfast schoolboy Noah Donohoe she thought it was a "Father's Day prank" when she saw the naked teenager cycling in north Belfast the day he went missing.

The body of the 14-year-old was found inside a water drainage network in north Belfast on 27 June 2020, six days after he went missing.

Kerry Fraser was in a house on Northwood Road talking to her son when, through the window, they saw the undressed teenager riding his bike.

In a statement to the police in 2020, she said: "He was totally naked. I thought it was a man who had too much to drink on Father's Day."

The mother and son wondered if it had been a prank.

Fraser said she did not immediately call the police because she thought it was "someone drunk or on drugs and didn't want to waste police time".

She said she did not think it was teenage boy at the time, and thought it was a grown man.

When Fraser checked the road with her son a short time later, they saw Noah's boxer shorts, shorts, trainers on the pavement and a top on a wall.

They also saw his bike "dumped" at the top of the cul-de-sac.

Fraser and her son did call the police once they saw the police appeal in relation to Noah Donohoe.

The court heard Fraser also took a Facebook comment down in relation to what she saw after a family member of Noah Donohoe contacted her to say it was distressing.

Another witness, the woman who found the bike at the end of her driveway, also gave evidence at the inquest on Thursday.

Karen Crooks noted the bike at the end of her driveway, its wheel pointing upwards.

Crooks spotted the bike on the day Noah Donohoe left home at the back of her car.

She had assumed it had been left by a child in the cul-de-sac, but at the time thought it "was strange".

The court heard she didn't think it was anything sinister.

A day later, she went to post on Facebook a picture of the black Apollo bike in the hope of finding its owner.

But before she had a chance, while flicking through social media, she saw the police appeal for a missing person, Noah Donohoe, and saw within the post, details about a bike.

Crooks called 101, and a police log of the call details she said it was lying "as if it had been abandoned".

Crooks' house is one of handful of homes which has access to the waste land next to a culvert which is a structure used to drain storm water.

They back onto waste land which can be accessed through their gardens.

The waste land leads down to a stream, and a culvert, a tunnel structure designed to transport water.

The court heard it was covered over with grilles but it is not padlocked shut.

Crooks confirmed to the court it was "beyond her imagination" that Noah Donohoe would be inside the water system.

Crooks had let her children play in the waste land in their wellies and had previously had no concerns about the drainage infrastructure.

She told the court she had assumed it was safe because it had been put in by a "government type" body.

She said he had assumed it would have been built to a certain standard, to meet regulations of some description, and therefore safe for the public to be around.

Crooks said no one ever told her in an official capacity to warn her of any dangers.

Since the discovery of Noah Donohoe, she told the court warning signs have been put up which say 'Keep Clear' and 'Do Not Enter'.

Interviews with local journalists from 2020 where Crooks spoke of her concerns about the storm drain where presented to the court.

It included broadcast interviews with BBC's Evening Extra programme and a piece about awareness of storm drains with the Irish News.

A post-mortem examination found that Noah Donohoe's death was due to drowning.

In a police briefing from the week Noah was missing, it was heard in court he had been described by officers as a "high-functioning autistic teenager".

Police noted in the "last potential sighting" of the teenager he was naked, heading towards open ground.

The note said the ground had been searched and no trace of Noah had been discovered.

The document presented to court was dated 24 June 2020. Noah Donohoe went missing on 21 June.

The inquest will resume on Monday.