Management of culvert access possible factor in Noah Donohoe death, jury finds

Fourteen-year-old Noah Donohoe who was found dead in a storm drain (Family/PA)

    Failings by a Stormont department around its management of access to a water culvert in north Belfast possibly contributed to the death of schoolboy Noah Donohoe in June 2020, an inquest jury in the city has found.

The jury found there were no police failings that contributed to the 14-year-old’s death – after unanimously agreeing that he died before he was reported missing.

However, jurors identified a series of subsequent investigative errors by officers that impacted the ability of the jury to reach conclusions on aspects of the long-running case.

The findings were read to Belfast Coroners’ Court by the foreman of the jury after 32 hours of deliberations.

Noah’s body was found in an underground water tunnel in north Belfast and a post-mortem examination concluded that the cause of his death was drowning.