Jury in Noah Donohoe inquest retires after juror discharged earlier

The jury in the Noah Donohoe inquest has retired after deliberating for four hours during which a jury member was discharged.

The deliberations resumed on Monday morning after being adjourned at the beginning of July to facilitate summer holiday arrangements.

The inquest has been examining 14-year-old Noah's disappearance and death in north Belfast in June 2020.

The jury - now seven men and two women - has resumed deliberations in the case after the summer recess. The decision to remove a juror was announced by the coroner Mr Justice Rooney with the reasons not made public.

The inquest began at the end of January and the jury has now been deliberating for a total of four days and will resume deliberations on Tuesday morning.

The jury began considering their verdict when all the evidence was completed at the end of June.

But the process was adjourned when it emerged some jury members were scheduled to go on holiday.

They had been deliberating over three days before the adjournment, without reaching the unanimous verdict required by the court.

In July, the coroner described the adjournment situation as "unprecedented".

The inquest began at the end of January and was adjourned after 62 days of evidence across a five-month period.

The jury heard from 76 witnesses who took the stand in court or via video link and a further 42 witness statements were read out in court.

The coroner emphasised that they must pay no attention to any rumours, speculation, or theories they may have heard in relation to the case.

He also said they cannot return a verdict that would return any criminal or civil liability.

Noah's body was found in an underground water tunnel close to the M2 motorway six days after he went missing.

The discovery was made more than 600m downstream from the tunnel system entrance which is located close to where Noah was last seen at Northwood Road.