A woman who saw teenager Noah Donohoe in the minutes before he disappeared says he appeared ‘startled’ as he picked up his bicycle from the road.
Noah, 14, was found in a storm drain on June 27 2020, some six days after he was last seen in the vicinity of Northwood Road in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
At an inquest at Belfast Coroner’s Court, jurors were read a statement from witness Sinead Quinn that was given to police in May 2021 after she saw a young man she was ‘certain’ was Noah picking up his bike in the street on June 21.
‘I remember it was Father’s Day last year as I had went to get my father a present,’ she said in the statement, read out by Mr Declan Quinn BL.
‘I was driving. We went to Lidl and Asda on the Shore Road. It was just as the shop was closing, around 6pm.
‘As I was about to turn right onto North Queen Street, I saw a young male picking a bike up off the road.
‘I saw he had dropped a khaki coat. I beeped the horn. He looked at the coat and looked at me. He looked startled and cycled on.’
Noah Donohoe disappeared on June 21 2020 in Belfast and was found in a storm drain six days later
She did not see if he had been injured – and contacted the police when an appeal was issued for information following Noah’s disappearance.
‘I am certain it was Noah I saw. The bike and coat were the same,’ she added.
Yesterday, the inquest was shown CCTV footage of Noah’s journey across Belfast after leaving his mother Fiona’s home on Fitzroy Avenue.
Non-continuous clips showed him cycling from the south to the north of the city. In the final footage, on Northwood Road, Noah was seen cycling naked.
The inquest, presided over by Mr Justice Rooney, continues.
