Noah was ‘my greatest gift in life’ – Fiona Donohoe

Noah Donohoe’s mother Fiona has described him as her “greatest gift in life”.

Ms Donohoe, who attended every day of the long-running inquest into her son’s mysterious death in a water culvert in north Belfast, said she missed him every day.

Solicitor Niall Murphy of KRW Law read a statement on Ms Donohoe’s behalf to media outside court on Tuesday after a jury found failings by a Stormont department around its management of access to the culvert possibly contributed to his death in June 2020.

Jurors also found while there were no police failings that contributed to the 14-year-old’s death, they identified 13 failings in the police investigation.

Fiona Donohoe (centre), with her sister Shona Donohoe (left) and family solicitor Niall Murphy (right) outside Belfast Coroner’s Court (Liam McBurney/PA)

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Ms Donohoe said she went to the inquest seeking answers, and left it with “one clear answer: Noah was failed”.

“He was failed by the Department for Infrastructure, who left a deadly storm drain unsecured and accessible to children.

“He was failed by the PSNI who, from the moment I reported him missing, repeatedly failed to investigate and, from the moment he was found, stopped looking for answers.

“Instead, to deflect from their own failings, the Department for Infrastructure and police have sought to blame Noah.”

Ms Donohoe said the inquest has “exposed a culture of institutional defensiveness that goes to the heart of these public bodies, coupled with a reckless disinterest in investigating what happened to my son”.

“I will never understand why and can never accept that Noah’s death did not merit a full and fearless investigation. Answers of ‘I don’t know’ and ‘I can’t recall’ permeated the evidence heard at this inquest,” she said.

“It’s easy to say you don’t know when you failed to find out. It’s easy to say you can’t recall when you haven’t secured and preserved the evidence capable of providing answers.

“The jury’s verdict lays bare that the evidence they have heard reveals an inventory of clear and repeated failings on the part of the PSNI and the Department for Infrastructure. Noah deserved better.”

Ms Donohoe concluded her statement by thanking the coroner, Mr Justice Rooney, as well as his friends for not only showing up for him as witnesses, but also for “reminding everyone of the funny, ambitious, loyal and positive boy that Noah was”.

Mr Murphy added that Ms Donohoe has “suffered indignity after indignity” since her son’s disappearance and death six years ago.

“Throughout this inquest, Fiona has sat stoic in the courtroom, listening to the most traumatic of evidence and witnessing repeated attempts by the Department for Infrastructure and the PSNI to defend their respective positions,” he said.

“Their high-handed conduct serves only to humiliate and re-traumatise. It would break most people.”

He added that Ms Donohoe’s resilience and perseverance, and her steadfastness in the fight for answers for her son, could not be understated.

“It should be a basic minimum that the Department for Infrastructure prevent access by children to deadly culverts in residential areas,” he added.

“It should be a basic minimum that when a child of our society goes missing, the PSNI do all in their power to find out what happened to him. When a child dies, it cries out for an explanation.

“It is an affront to public justice that a grieving mother has had to fight for years for answers, that a grieving mother has had to fight to expose the many and repeated failings in the police investigation.”

He added: “Let us be clear: the jury’s findings of repeated failings are as a result of a tireless pursuit for information from Fiona Donohoe.

“It is completely wrong that a mother has had to investigate her own son’s disappearance and death – if it was left to the PSNI and DfI alone, we would never have any answers at all.”

Infrastructure minister Liz Kimmins said there is “a lot of details still to consider” following the verdict, but conceded there are “lessons to be learned” in her department.

“The verdict is now known, and we take time to consider that, but I want to put out there that I unreservedly accept the findings of the inquest, and as minister, I will ensure that my department learns from the lessons that have been identified, and will take that forward in everything that we do,” she told reporters at Stormont.

Asked about Ms Donohoe’s concerns that the DfI and the police sought to “blame” Noah, Ms Kimmins said: “I would hate to think any mother felt like that, and certainly from my perspective as a mother, taking away from my role as minister, I would hate to think that that has been the approach.”