Woman thought it was a ‘prank’ when she noticed schoolboy Noah Donohoe biking bare on day he disappeared, inquest hears
A woman who saw schoolboy Noah Donohoe cycling naked on the day he disappeared thought it was a ‘prank’, an inquest has heard.
Noah was 14 when he 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.
On Thursday, Belfast Coroner’s Court heard from Kerry Fraser, who had been at her partner’s house on Northwood Road the evening Noah left his home.
She said: ‘He was totally naked. I thought it was a man who had had too much to drink on Father’s Day and was having a prank.
‘He was sitting down cycling and did not appear to be distressed, although he was cycling quickly.
‘I got up and went to the window and looked out, but he was away.
‘I thought he must have gone into one of the houses.’
Ms Fraser added that she then went outside and saw grey shorts and white boxers in the street while a jumper was hung over a wall and a pair of trainers had been ‘placed neatly against the wall’.
Noah Donohoe, pictured, was 14 when he 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
CCTV footage issued as part of a police appeal in 2020 shows Noah riding on York Road in Belfast before he removed his clothes
She said she saw the bike lying on the ground further up the cul-de-sac but there was no sign of the male who had been riding it.
The witness said she later became aware of a public appeal over Noah’s disappearance and told her son to contact the police.
Ms Fraser put a post on Facebook stating she saw a naked cyclist but later removed it, the court heard, after being contacted by a member of Noah’s family.
The inquest into the teenager’s death is now in its second week at Belfast Coroner’s Court.
Noah’s mother Fiona Donohoe has attended every day of the inquest.
Karen Crooks, a resident of Northwood Road, had earlier told the inquest she found the boy’s bike near her car outside her house on the same evening.
She said she lifted the mountain bike about an hour later and propped it up.
Ms Crooks added the bike was still there the following night. She then contacted police after seeing a post on social media about Noah’s disappearance.
On Thursday, Belfast Coroner’s Court heard from Kerry Fraser, pictured leaving court, who had been at her partner’s house on Northwood Road the evening Noah left his home
‘I realised the bike described matched the bike in my driveway,’ she said, while being questioned by Neasa Murnaghan, barrister for the Department of Infrastructure.
The witness told the jury an area of wasteland where the storm drain was located could be accessed through a side gate at her property.
Ms Murnaghan said the area was surrounded by a 1.8-metre metal fence and suggested the only other way of accessing the spot was to ‘trespass’ through Ms Crooks’s property, or that of a neighbour.
She added the metal bars across the entrance to the storm drain were known as a ‘debris screen’.
Ms Crooks said her five-year-old son had been able to fit through the bars but had not entered the tunnel.
Donal Lunny, barrister for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), told the witness that when she contacted the force, she was the first person to bring police into the Northwood Road area which led to inquiries that captured the last sighting of Noah.
Mr Lunny asked Ms Crooks if she remembered if the gate to the side of her property and her garden gate were open or shut on the evening Noah went missing.
She said she could not be 100 per cent sure but said that the gate was usually kept shut as she had two dogs which could wander.
Noah pictured with his mother Fiona Donohoe, who is still hoping for answers over her son’s death six years on
Mr Lunny asked, ‘if, for example, Noah had come up your driveway, he’d most likely have had to open (the gates)?’ and Ms Crooks agreed.
Brenda Campbell KC, counsel for Noah’s mother, asked Ms Crooks if anyone had ever told her that children needed to take care around the storm drain.
Ms Crooks said this had never happened, and added she had not known there was no padlock on the hatch to the drain before the disappearance of Noah.
The counsel asked: ‘After Noah disappeared, and the searches that started… that’s really the first time that the dangers of it were drawn to your attention?’
Ms Crooks said: ‘100 per cent, yes.’
Ms Campbell added that Ms Crooks had called publicly for ‘greater safety measures’ around drains in residential areas.
She said: ‘Has the Department (for Infrastructure) asked you for your opinion on what is safe for your children in Northwood Road?’
Ms Crooks said: ‘They have never contacted me or come near me to make me aware that this is not a safe area for children to be around, or to keep my children away from it.’
The inquest will resume on Monday.
