Schoolboy Noah Donohoe fell off his bike and was seen undressing in the street on the day he went missing, witnesses have told an inquest.
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 bicycle to meet two friends in the Cavehill area of the city.
On Wednesday, an inquest heard from a number of people who witnessed parts of the teenager’s journey on the evening he disappeared.
Amanda Seenan, who saw the schoolboy falling from his bike, said he did not suffer a head injury that would explain him being found dead, despite describing the tumble as ‘not light’.
Her police statement was read to the hearing at Belfast Coroner’s Court, which told how she 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.
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.
Noah Donohoe disappeared on June 21, 2020, in Belfast and was found dead in a storm drain six days later
A still from CCTV footage shows Noah cycling on York Road in Belfast on the day he disappeared
Witness Amanda Seenan (pictured on Wednesday) told an inquest in Belfast that she did not see Noah suffer a head injury despite witnessing the fall she described as ‘not light’
‘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, she said it ‘wasn’t a wee fall’.
‘It’s pretty bad, not horrifically bad, but it wasn’t just a light fall to the side or whatever, he did go forward,’ she said.
Ms Seenan later told the inquest that she did not see Noah hit his head on the road.
Counsel for Noah’s mother Fiona Donohoe, Brenda Campbell KC, showed the witness a PSNI press release from the period when Noah was missing, which stated that someone had seen him fall off his bike and possibly suffer a head injury.
Ms Seenan said she had no reason to believe that Noah had suffered such injury.
She claimed she ‘was a bit miffed’ it had been reported that Noah may have had an injury because she had not told this to police.
She said: ‘I didn’t believe he had a head injury.’
Ms Campbell then showed the witness a police document from the PSNI senior investigating officer in the case, which said the theory that Noah injured his head was based upon Ms Seenan’s witness evidence.
Ms Seenan said: ‘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.’
One person told the coroner’s court how Noah looked ‘startled’ after he fell, while another said he ‘appeared unsteady’ as he cycled.
The court also heard from Krzysztof Kozakiewicz, who was driving to drop a friend off on Northwood Road when he saw a male standing on the street with no top on.
Asked if he knew about Noah going missing, Mr Kozakiewicz said: ‘I saw through Facebook that he had no clothes on and I clicked on that I had seen him.
‘It must have been a few weeks after they found him.’
When Mr Quinn asked why he did not contact police, Mr Kozakiewicz said: ‘I just didn’t think anything of it’.
Sinead Quinn, who was also heard from at the inquest, said she contacted police after seeing 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. ‘I beeped the horn to point this out to him,’ she said.
‘He looked startled, he didn’t lift the coat, but just cycled on, which I thought was strange.’
Witness Nathan Montgomery told the hearing that he saw a young cyclist on the road when travelling to pick up takeaway food in north Belfast shortly after 6pm.
He said that when he was returning along North Queen Street a short time later, he saw the same cyclist.
Mr Montgomery said: ‘I slowed down to his speed as he appeared to sway out from the pavement toward the middle of the lane and back in a couple of times.
‘This did not appear exaggerated, only slight, it was enough to make me wary of passing the cyclist.
Noah with his mother Fiona Donohoe, who is still hoping for answers over her son’s death six years on
‘I waited for the oncoming lane to be completely clear before passing the cyclist, I assumed his swaying out from the pavement to be lack of experience on a bicycle and nothing else.
‘It did stick in my mind that he appeared unsteady.’
Mr Montgomery said he gave a statement to police after they called at his home later in the week seeking information about Noah and spoke to his wife.
The statement of witness Beryl Smyth was read to the court. She said she was sitting in her house at Northwood Crescent reading a book when she saw a young cyclist pass by on the footpath.
She added that she saw the cyclist working at the straps of his helmet.
The witness said that when she left her house a short time later to go to church, she saw the helmet on the pavement beside the lamppost.
The helmet was still there when she returned from church, she said.
The inquest, which is in its second week, continues.
