Noah Donohoe was found dead in a storm drain in north Belfast in June 2020, six days after leaving home on his bike to meet two friends in the Cavehill area of the city
A teenager fell off his bike and was seen undressing in the street on the day he went missing, an inquest heard.
Noah Donohoe, 14, was later found dead in a storm drain in north Belfast in June 2020, six days after leaving home on his bike to meet two friends in the Cavehill area of the Northern Ireland capital. Police had believed he suffered a head injury in the moments before his death, but a woman who saw Noah fall from his bicycle yesterday told his inquest she was “confused” about the police theory.
Amanda Seenan said she did not see Noah suffer any such injury despite witnessing the fall she described as “not light”. Ms Seenan’s statement, read at the hearing at Belfast Coroner’s Court, said she “was a bit miffed” that it had been reported Noah may have had an injury because she had not told this to police.
Counsel for Noah’s mother Fiona Donohoe, Brenda Campbell KC, showed Ms Seenan a Police Service Northern Ireland (PSNI) press release from the period when Noah was missing which stated that a witness had seen him fall off his bike and possibly suffer a head injury.
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But the witness statement said Ms Seenan had gone for a drive with her baby daughter on the evening of June 21, 2020 when she saw a male cyclist ahead of her on North Queen Street in Belfast.
She said: “He was to my left, I noticed the male took a tumble off his bike. He was just approaching the bus layby when he fell. The bike went with him when he fell.
“I slowed down as I was about to come to the end of the road and see if the male was OK. I could see, though, that the male had jumped up and got onto his bike again. He got up pretty quick and pedalled away along the bus layby.”
Ms Seenan said she saw a green coat had been left lying on the road. When questioned by counsel to the coroner Peter Coll KC, Ms Seenan said it “wasn’t a wee fall”. She said: “It’s pretty bad, not horrifically bad, but it wasn’t just a light fall to the side or whatever, he did go forward.”
Ms Seenan later told the inquest that she did not see Noah hit his head on the road. Ms Seenan said she had no reason to believe that Noah had suffered a head injury. She said: “I didn’t believe he had a head injury.
“I definitely didn’t say he had a head injury, because I know I didn’t see him hit his head. So, I was very confused as to where that was coming from.”
The inquest also heard from Sinead Quinn, who said she contacted police after she saw a youth when driving at the junction of North Queen Street and Alexandra Park Avenue. Her statement said she saw a young male picking a bike off the road, but did not see him fall.
Ms Quinn said: “He picked the bike up off the ground, got onto it and began to cycle away towards the Shore Road away from city centre.”
She said she then saw his jacket was still on the road. She said: “I beeped the horn to point this out to him. He looked startled, he didn’t lift the coat, but just cycled on, which I thought was strange.”
The inquest, which is in its second week, continues.
