“The crucial mistake police may have overlooked”: Noah Donohoe inquest hears CCTV time discrepancies may have impacted police spotting teen on fσσtage

Evidence in the third week of the inquest has come to a close.

Proceedings will be on a mid-term break next week.

The inquest will next be held on Monday, February 16 from 10am.

Mr Donal Lunny KC, counsel for the PSNI, is now questioning the witness.

Constable Keatley confirmed that it was “standard” procedure to send a message to a missing child to let them know that they should contact police and that they weren’t in any trouble.

“It’s more just in case they’re scared that police have become involved,” she said.

Mr Lunny also returned to the comments in Constable Budden’s second statement relating to to counselling and Noah being “very weepy”.

He asked her to clarify that her earlier comments that she didn’t remember the comments from their conversation with Ms Donohoe.

The witness clarified that when she was asked about the comments earlier and she said she didn’t remember the comments,  she meant that she “didn’t recall” the comments and not that they weren’t said.

Mr Lunny told the inquest that by the Monday night, police had already located Noah’s end point in CCTV after having been out to Northwood Road and seen footage from a resident at the cul-de-sac which would ultimately be the last known footage of Noah.

Mr Lunny showed a log entry from June 22, 2020 at 9.36pm, that officers had attended an abandoned bike in Northwood Road and that they had spoken to some residents had observed a “black male child cycling” the previous evening.

An entry on June 23 at 12.10am showed a note that a resident had approached police with home CCTV footage of Noah cycling past his house naked.

In relation to Constable Keatley’s log entry on June 23 at 8pm, relating to footage at Grove Leisure Centre, she clarified at that stage this footage was important to try and understand if he had hit his head after falling from his bike on North Queen Street.

Referring to earlier questions from Ms Campbell relating to officers not initially spotting Noah on CCTV on Grove Leisure Centre footage over time discrepancies on the camera system, Mr Lunny asked the witness that if at the time the procedure was that “a formal time check” was only done “when CCTV is being seized”, the witness agreed.

Ms Campbell later asked the witness about this procedure again.

She asked the officer that if that meant that in the midst of a high-risk missing person investigation you would “turn a blind eye” to the real time of the footage.

Ms Keatley replied: “No”.

She said that she “can’t speak for other officers” but that she would probably ask during enquiries if there was a difference in time footage.

Ms Campbell resumed questioning Constable Keatley after lunch and revisited log entries relating to CCTV footage identification.

The witness said that she didn’t feel comfortable answering questions relating to part of the investigation that she wasn’t personally involved in.

Ms Campbell returned to Constable Keatley’s entry just before 8pm on June 23.

In her log entry, she states: “I can see from an earlier entry that CCTV was checked at the Grove building and possible a sighting of Noah at 17:30 he should be cycling past this area between 17:57 – 18:08 if the footage can be double checked as there is cameras at both ends of the Grove which should pick him up.

“This should show if he looks at all unsteady on the bike after his fall or distressed,” she adds in the notes.

“Someone who can access cameras should be available from 7am in the morning at the Grove and there is a contact email listed below staff at present unable to provide contact number.”

When asked, the witness said that she had been out and identified two cameras on the building which should be able to pick him up.

At this stage, she said that didn’t know if he had hit his head and clarified her earlier statements regarding having hit his head.

She agreed that she thought that he “potentially” had hit his head after learning from a witness that he had come off his bike and was concerned that he may have hit his head.

Separately to Constable Keatley’s evidence, Ms Campbell informed the coroner before lunch that they had been made aware overnight of a development in CCTV footage from a home in Northwood Road which was referenced by previous witness Karen Crooks.

At the time, she told the inquest that there may have been a rear-facing camera at a property in the cul-de-sac where Noah was last seen.

The development in this evidence will be discussed at the inquest at a later stage.

Proceedings are now paused for lunch, with evidence from Detective Constable Keatley to resume from 2pm.

Brenda Campbell KC, counsel for Fiona Donohoe, is now questioning the witness.

Earlier, the inquest heard that the officer had stayed on after her shift on the Tuesday to inform Ms Donohoe that Noah’s clothes had been found as she didn’t want her to have to find out from elsewhere.

As with previous officers who gave evidence, Ms Campbell asked Constable Keatley if she would accept “that the first 24 hours in any high-risk missing person’s investigation” are “critical” and that “time is survivability in those moments”.

“Yes,” she replied.

Ms Campbell then showed the inquest logs that other officers who were checking CCTV had made on Monday, June 22.

Ms Campbell said that Ms Keatley’s personal efforts were “not in dispute” and that “the level of support that [she] gave to Fiona” was also “not in dispute”.

The officer, alongside Constable Budden, were not assigned to trawl CCTV on the Monday. It was clarified that this was another unit.

Logs on Monday, June 22, showed another officer record at around 3.15pm that they had checked footage at the Grove Leisure Centre and the funeral directors opposite “with negative results” and that CCTV at the Grove had recorded a group of “four youths” on bikes but “couldn’t confirm if the [missing person] was among them”.

Ms Campbell then showed the inquest footage from the Grove Leisure Centre timestamped at 17.18pm on June 21 showing a single cyclist pass the camera, which is now known to be Noah. However, Ms Campbell clarified that the real time of the sighting was at 6.01pm and that the camera system time was off.

“I don’t suggest for a minute Detective Constable that you’re responsible for this,” she clarified.

She continued that it if an officer checked the camera for 6pm on the ‘camera time’, which can sometimes be off, rather than the real time, they were looking at a period of time “40 minutes after Noah had passed”.

Another log entry at 6.25pm added that CCTV footage at Grove Leisure Centre “is of very poor quality” and they were “unable to establish the camera times are accurate” as it appeared to be off.

“Staff could not clarify,” the entry added.

“He was on it at real time 6.01,” Ms Campbell told the inquest.

Logs on June 23 showed Constable Keatley attempting to locate CCTV and contacting locations around York Gate Shopping Centre, where he had been seen on CCTV and where the phone was found.

She also spoke with eyewitness Amanda Seenan, who saw him fall, to ascertain further information and left directions for colleagues to check back in with other enquiries.

When asked by Mr Quinn what her own thoughts about what happened to Noah during the first few days, she said that “on the first day, based on the information we had”, she thought Noah might have went to harm himself but it was due to the fact the behaviour was “out of character” and he was supposed to have met friends but didn’t.

She said that when she realised that she “had hit his head and fallen off his bike” and that his clothes had been found, she “thought then he had some sort of head injury”.

Ms Keatley added that this was “an internal thought” and that it was her own thoughts at the time and “not necessarily” what others thought.

She added that she kept all other lines of enquiries open and that she did not cancel out any other possibilities of what might have happened.

Constable Keatley recalled that after they had their phone in their possession after collecting it from Ms Armstrong on the Monday, she saw that it “started ringing and it said mum”.

She said that she was “immediately concerned” that Fiona might think Noah might answer and so she answered it quickly to let her know that the phone now had police.

She said that at a later point in the investigation, another phone call came through to the phone.

“I believe there was another call that was answered and that was most likely by me, by one of Noah’s friends I believe, she said.

Constable Keatley agreed with Declan Quinn, counsel for the coroner, that she felt “invested” in the case after being on the investigation on Monday, June 22.

“On the briefing on Tuesday morning I has asked if Noah has been located,” she said.

Ms Keatley said that she asked to be placed on the case again at that briefing after having been over it the previous day.

She also agreed that she was personally committed and determined to find Noah.

When asked about comments in Constable Budden’s statement from January 2021, she said that she didn’t remember any mention of counselling from their conversation with Ms Donohoe on the Monday morning.

“I do remember speaking with a teacher,” she said.

In relation to comments that Noah had been “very weepy”, she said she couldn’t recall that being said but remembered Fiona describing Noah as “sensitive”.

“I just recall the word sensitive being said,” she said.

Proceedings are now underway on day 12 and Constable Keatly has resumed giving her evidence.

Catch-up on yesterday’s proceedings as the last day of proceedings in week three are due to get underway this morning.

Proceedings have ended for the day and will resume on Thursday morning , when Constable Keatley will continue giving evidence.

The officer’s notebook was shown to the inquest which includes a line “aggressive, crying low moods”

Constable Keatley said that she had “no idea” why it was written and that she couldn’t recall anyone referring to Noah as having been “aggressive”.

She told the court that she could “only assume” that it was an “error”.

The description appears under a line which had been drawn in the notebook and she said that the notes could have been made when speaking with one of Noah’s friends.

When asked by Mr Quinn, she confirmed that it would “not at all” have been in reference to Ms Donohoe’s behaviour or that anyone would have told her that Noah was aggressive.

Asked why there were no notes after her meeting with Ms Donohoe until the end of her shift, she said it was because the OEL log was updated with information later.

She said that Constable Budden was the observer for the day and he entered all of the logs on the first day.

At the time, she informed the inquest that the OEL logs were updated at the police station.

Declan Quinn, counsel for the coroner, is questioning PSNI Detective Constable Keatley.

Her statement, from February 5, 2021, was read to the inquest.

In it, she recalled accompanying Constable Budden on duty on the day following Noah going missing (June 22, 2020).

“I sent a text message to Noah’s mobile phone asking him if he was ok, to contact police and to tell him he was not in any trouble,” she said.

Later, after accompany Constable Budden to retrieve the phone from Ms Armstrong that afternoon, she remembers a phone call coming through which she could see was from ‘mum’ and answered it to let Fiona know they had the phone.

In her statement, she said that she was “unsure” and didn’t remember if the phone had received any other calls while in police possession.

The inquest is now being shown notes taken in her pocket notebook that day.

Fiona Donohoe’s barrister, Brenda Campbell KC, has asked Mr Brown about the access to the waste ground from Premier Drive.

He said that there was a gap out the back of their friend’s garden, Michael Henry, at the bottom of the alleyway.

From there, the ‘waste ground’ which included the stream and embankment was beyond a four-foot high wire fence and a hedge.

He told the inquest that the gap at the back of this garden has since been blocked off because his friend’s dog continued to get out.

Earlier, Mr Brown told Neasa Murnaghan KC, barrister for the Department for Infrastructure (DfI) that the ‘waste ground’ was not accessible from the back of his own house.

Mr Brown said that he did once enter the ‘waste ground’ area which led to the stream and which included the culvert at the back of his friend’s garden when looking for his friend’s dog and recalled having to “lie down” and crawl to get through a hole in the wire fence.

He also earlier told the inquest that the Northwood Linear Park was also not accessible from the back of his own house due to the large spiked fence.

Donal Lunny KC, barrister for the PSNI, has also questioned Mr Brown.

The witness agreed that it was likely him and not his wife who responded to police making door-to-door enquiries and provided information which was put on the questionnaire which referred to a “faint scream” being heard at 12.05am.

Mr Lunny also questioned the witness on whether or not it was Sunday into Monday (the night Noah went missing) or Monday into Tuesday night he saw the flash of light as this was not mentioned on the house-to-house questionnaire.

Mr Brown said he didn’t know.

Mr Lunny then asked him if it would have been easy for someone to get out of the alleyway behind his house.

He said that the entry between houses 78 and 80 which was large enough to “fit a car” down it.

Mr Brown agreed that it would be “relatively easy” to get out onto the street if needed.

The inquest has now resumed after lunch, with witness Grant Brown now giving evidence.

Mr Brown is the husband of Mrs Brown, who gave evidence before lunch.

Peter Coll KC, counsel for the coroner, is read his statement from July 1, 2020.

In his statement, he said that he was lying sleeping on his sofa on the night of June 21, 2020, when his wife Tanya woke him up and informed him she had heard screaming coming from the back of the house.

When they then went out to their back garden, he said he looked around his garden but didn’t go into the alleyway or second back garden,

He recalled then hearing a “muffled scream”.

“It sounded like a girl’s scream,” he said in his statement.

“I assumed it could have come from the house two doors up as there are three girls living there.”

At the inquest, when questioned, he said he couldn’t say that it categorically came from that house and that it could have come from somewhere else.

When he returned inside, he recalled looking at the clock and the time was five minutes past midnight.

Later, at around 3am, he said that he was woken up by a “white flash” from what looked like a “torch light” flashed in their kitchen window.

He said that the kitchen and living room were open-plan and that he could see the kitchen window from the sofa where he was lying.

When questioned by Mr Coll, Mr Brown said the light could have come from his back garden or from the alleyway.

He said he didn’t remember if he got up or not but that it “didn’t worry” him.

Mr Brown said that he checked the time on his phone and went back to sleep.

The following evening, on June 22, his wife told him that their neighbour Ms Semple said that someone had tried her door at around 3am.

The inquest is now on a break and will resume at 2.15pm.

Ms Brown was also questioned about her knowledge of the ‘rough ground’ or ‘waste land’ behind houses in the cul-de-sac at Northwood Park.

“I knew there was a stream there but I had never seen it,” she said.

She later clarified that she saw the stream after Noah’s disappearance when she became closer with residents at a house further down Premier Drive.

She said that the stream could be seen from the bottom of their garden but she had never stepped foot in the ‘rough ground’.

Ms Brown was shown pictures of the area which were earlier shown to the inquest.

Neasa Murnaghan KC, counsel for the Department for Infrastructure (DfI), also questioned the witness on the area of land earlier.

Ms Brown said she had been resident on Premier Drive for around eight or nine years prior to Noah going missing.

She said she had not known about the culvert in Northwood Linear Park.

Asked about her neighbour Ms Semple’s evidence, who spoke at the inquest earlier this week, she said she had been aware of dogs coming through to their back alleyway but didn’t know where they were coming from.

After being shown the evidence of a resident on Northwood Parade who previously told the inquest that she had heard a high-pitched scream at around 12.30am, Ms Brown said that the description of the sound of the scream, which sounded either like a woman or a young person, “fits in”.

“I knew it wasn’t a full-grown man screaming, for example,” she said.

When asked if by Ms Campbell, she said that it “could have been” a young person or a girl that she heard screaming.

However, she added that she “did not hear anything” after the second scream approximately after midnight.

Ms McMullan, the resident on Northwood Parade, heard a scream approximately 30 minutes later.

Later, Mr Lunny pointed out that there was “no evidence” that the scream both individuals heard came from “the same person”.

The witness is now being questioned by Brenda Campbell KC, counsel for Fiona Donohoe.

Ms Brown said she initially thought the screams were teenagers in the distance, but that she “thought it was of relevance” once she “saw search lights” and so reported it to police.

Ms Campbell noted that the word scream was used six times in her statement.

When asked if the officer who took her statement asked if the scream had been from a fox or an animal, she said they had not.

She clarified that she had “no doubt” in her mind at the time that what she heard was from a human.

Questioned by Donal Lunny KC, counsel for the PSNI, she was asked if the scream was from a person or an animal, like a fox.

“I have never heard a fox scream before,” she said.

When asked if she heard any words with the scream, she said that she did not.

Ms Brown also said that the scream was “high-pitched”.

She said that she “could have” come from Northwood Linear Park

The inquest was then shown a house-to-house questionnaire filled in by police making enquiries and a police log which noted that they heard a “faint scream”.

When asked if it was a singular scream, Ms Brown said that she heard two screams – one while she was upstairs and one downstairs.

Mr Lunny then informed Ms Brown that another witness, a resident on Northwood Parade, previously told the inquest that she heard a scream at around 12.30am.

Ms Brown said she didn’t hear anything after the second scream in her back garden, however she noted that she could have been asleep by that time.

The next witness, Tanya Brown, is now giving evidence.

A resident on Premier Driver, a statement given to police on July 1, 2020, was read to the inquest by Peter Coll KC, counsel for the coroner.

In her statement, she recalled lying in her bed reading at around midnight on the night of June 21 into June 22, 2020, with her window open when she heard what she thought was “a scream” which sounded like it came from a distance away.

“It sounded like a girl screaming,” she said.

She said that she went to her window to look out the back.

During the day, she told the inquest that she would “roughly” be able to see part of the grass circle at the top of Northwood Linear Park from her back garden, but that at the time of night that she wasn’t able to see anything.

She said that she didn’t hear any laughter along with the scream

After hearing the scream, she said she went downstairs to wake her husband who was in the living room and the two of them went out their garden at their back door.

She said that they both then heard a second scream which was also faint and stood for a further five minutes but didn’t hear anything else.

She told the inquest that they have a “six foot fence” and so weren’t able to see anything.

After returning inside, she went back to bed, and the following evening, on June 22, she became aware of Noah Donohoe after noticing people searching in the Northwood Linear Park area.

She said she then contacted police about what she had heard.

Ms Brown said she had not been aware of Noah Donohoe beforehand.

Evidence from Constable Budden has ended, with the inquest on a short break.

Proceedings are due to get back underway in the next five minutes with the next witness.

Coroner Mr Justice Rooney asked the witness about the “very weepy” comment and that Noah had become “captivated” by the Jordan Peterson book in his second statement.

He highlighted that the request for the statement was for the witness’s own observations and comments made by Ms Donohoe.

The coroner acknowledged that the “very weepy” description and the Jordan Peterson book were not mentioned in the witness’ own OEL log entry.

The coroner asked Constable Budden if he had read other entries as well as his own before providing his second statement.

He said that he couldn’t recall if he had or not, given that it was five years ago.

“That’s what I have recalled from comments made by Fiona,” he said.

Mr Lunny clarified that while mention of Jordan Peterson was not in Constable Budden’s own OEL entry, he had already told the inquest that he did not add it to his own notes as it was already in previous entries and that he himself had recalled it but not entered it.

Mr Lunny revisited questions put to Constable Budden on Tuesday by Ms Campbell regarding CCTV checks carried out by various officers.

Constable Budden said he was not one of the officers involved in checking Belfast’s police CCTV network.

He agreed that there were a number of possible routes that a cyclist could take at the junction of Cromac Street and Ormeau Avenue, which is where the first possible sighting of Noah was identified at around 3.40am on June 22, 2020.

Log notes showed the officer and his colleague had checked for CCTV at locations on North Queen Street near Castleton Park, where Noah’s phone had been discovered.

He agreed that there were “many” investigative steps being taken by himself and other officers throughout the Monday.

Mr Lunny has revisited the mention to Ms Donohoe having arranged counselling with the school for Noah.

When asked if he would have viewed the difference between Ms Donohoe having sought the counselling and the school proposing counselling was “materially different”, Constable Budden replied: “Potentially not.”

He added that his “main focus” at the time was “finding Noah”.

In his log notes on June 22, 2020, he recorded having spoken with Ms McCusker, who informed him that a meeting with the counsellor hadn’t yet been arranged, but that it had been proposed by the school after Ms Donohoe had contacted them.

Questioning Constable Budden on recalling events relating to the case by the time January 2021 came around, he agreed that the case had been “significant” and that he hadn’t been on another case “on this scale”.

The email from a senior investigator in the Noah Donohoe case sent to Mr Budden and Mr Murphy on January 18, 2021, was shown to the inquest.

In the email, the investigator requested a second statement from the two officers.

“The coroner has asked for you to record statements regarding your observations and comments made by Fiona Donohoe regarding Noah’s behaviour leading to his disappearance,” the email read.

A response from Constable Budden was sent on January 27 noting that he had made his statement and that he was “a bit unsure how to structure it” and that if there were “any issues” to let him know.

Ms Campbell asked if Mr Budden spoke to anyone about what might be included guidance he asked from anyone else on how to proceed with his statement.

“It was five years ago. I can’t recall,” he said.

He said that he didn’t receive any guidance as to what to include, and that he hadn’t reached out to CID to ask them what to include.

He said he didn’t want to be accused of being “influenced” as to what to put into his statement.

When asked what sources he used to inform his second statement, he said he would have put down what he recalled as well as notes made on the OEL log and notebook.

“I believed I would have looked back at what I had written at the time as well,” he said.

Ms Campbell also asked Constable Budden about why he mentioned the Jordan Peterson book in his second statement.

He said that it had been recorded in earlier logs by other officers and that he remembered it from his conversation with Ms Donohoe as being “unusual”.

Later questioned by Donal Lunny KC, counsel for the PSNI, Constable Budden agreed that he wouldn’t have put something in the statement if he couldn’t recall it.

Constable Budden has resumed giving evidence as proceedings on day eleven of the inquest commences.

Brenda Campbell KC is now re-questioning the witness about his second statement made in January 2021.

She is asking the witness about three main points from the statement, with the first being a description of Noah being “very weepy”.

Ms Campbell is showing the transcript of Fiona’s 999 call in which she described Noah as having been crying that day.

He agreed that Fiona was “desperate” to provide as much information to police that day and that the description in her statement was “materially different”.

The officer told the inquest that the notes in his statement were what he recalled at the time of making it.

Ms Campbell asked is he agreed that “at a point of crisis, issues can be amplified by the crisis”, to which he responded: “Absolutely.”

On the issue in his statement regarding Ms Donohoe having arranged counselling from the school, he agreed that there was a “material difference” in her 999 call in which she mentioned talking with pastoral care at the school who then offered in-person study sessions and the option of counselling being proposed.

The third point discussed with the witness about his statement relates to the Jordan Peterson book.

Revisiting Ms Donohoe’s statement which was read to the jury two weeks ago, it was noted that Noah “had enjoyed the book to the point that he wouldn’t put it down, but this was not something new or unusual for him at all”.

“I cannot see how this book had anything at all with Noah going missing,” she said.

He agreed that it was “perfectly normal” to bring detail such as the book he was reading at the time to police in that moment and to later provide more context.

Evidence from Constable Budden is to continue tomorrow morning as the inquest resumes from 10am, when he will be questioned by the PSNI’s barrister, Mr Lunny.

On Tuesday afternoon, Ms Donohoe’s barrister Ms Campbell highlighted police log notes on CCTV sightings of Noah.

An entry from an officer at 11.28am on June 22, 2020, said that footage captured at 5.57pm on June 21 saw Noah on North Queen Street heading “towards Tigers Bay”.