Noah Donohoe Inquest: Resource Gaps & Delays

0:00On April 16th, the inquest into the death of 14-year-old Noah Donahoe is now in its eleventh week at Belfast Corner's Court. Noah, a student at Somalakai's College, went missing on his bike in North Belfast back in June 2020 and his naked body turned up drowned in. A storm drained tunnel six days later. A retired PSNI officer testified that his hazardous search team faced big hurdles because they're just worn enough cops to clear the crowds from the search zone. They only had two team members available on June 23rd, so the covert dive didn't kick off until the next morning. The officer described the tunnel as a super-hostile spot, pitch black and tough to navigate, figuring a determined team might crawl through and under an hour. The social media conspiracy theories had folks swarming the area, making things chaotic right from the jump. Parts of the crowd got straight antagonistic to our police, forcing the team to pause the search for lunch and hopes it had been out. Log show hundreds still hanging around by 1 p.m. with shouting matches between locals and residents. The officer

1:04admitted controlling that many people for a high-risk kid search needed way more public order units than they had. Earlier testimony revealed police never checked key CCTV from a nearby house that could have shown Noah near the drain entrance. That footage might have flipped the whole strategy from search to full rescue mode. Plus, word on the covert being title didn't fall through till later, delaying diver deployment. As this inquest drags on, its clear resource gaps and info delays shaped the response, leaving more questions about what could have been done sooner to. Find Noah Alive.