Police defend handling of CCTV in Noah Donohoe disappearance

A police witness has defended his handling of CCTV footage from the time of Noah Donohoe's disappearance in north Belfast.

Insp Cuan Bell was a duty sergeant during the first days of the PSNI search for the schoolboy whose body was found in an underground water tunnel almost a week after he disappeared in 2020.

Giving evidence at an inquest into the boy's death, Bell was questioned about CCTV footage from a house at the end of the Northwood Road cul-de-sac close to where Noah went missing.

The inquest has been examining if something relating to Noah's disappearance in the area could have been missed because the rear-view footage was not thoroughly checked at the time.

CCTV footage recorded at the front of the house was provided to police a day after the schoolboy's disappearance and it showed Noah naked and abandoning his bicycle on the pavement before disappearing behind houses.

Bell told the inquest that he also viewed CCTV footage from the rear of the same house at the time of the search.

He said: "I was aware there was one [a camera] at the rear."

Bell told the coroner, Mr Justice Rooney, that he viewed the footage on a mobile phone at the time, but he did not think it contained much additional information.

He added: "Was it likely to get anything? No".

The witness was challenged by Fiona Donohoe's barrister about his failure to record his knowledge about the rear-view CCTV camera in notes and statements.

Bell said he asked for the footage to be checked in more detail, but he thought "the likelihood of getting something on it was highly unlikely".

He explained that he believed a view of the area beyond the back garden of the house would have been obscured by the height of the garden fence which he estimated to be around 6ft in height.

The jury of nine men and two women were shown a video re-enactment which attempted to illustrate what the CCTV camera at the rear of the house might have captured around the culvert behind the houses, close to where Noah was last seen.

The barrister suggested that "movement" and "a head and shoulders" can be seen on the video re-enactment.

Bell said that could be due to the height of the person taking part in the re-enactment.

He suggested the person in question could have been taller than 6ft - whereas Noah was just over 5ft in height.

The witness also defended the timing and processing of transmitter information relating to Noah's phone.

Bell was asked why he did not ensure that some information relating to these matters was matched together by the PSNI at an earlier stage on the day after Noah went missing.

He said it was important to remember that these strands were only part of their wider enquiries at the time.

Bell said their operation included searches in many different parts of Belfast as well as conducting checks at shopping centres, transport hubs and public spaces.

When asked about information received about "pinging" on Noah's phone, Bell said: "Was it the most important information? I'm not really sure it was".

Commenting on CCTV footage, Bell said: "If you're checking CCTV, you're not guaranteed results".

He added: "Plenty of streets aren't covered by CCTV".

He also emphasised that CCTV takes time to collect and check, and there were difficulties gaining access to certain businesses and premises at the time because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Bell also explained that "everything doesn't have the same weight" in any police investigation.

The inquest, which began in January, could continue until the first week in May.