A crowdfunding effort on behalf of the family of tragic Belfast schoolboy Noah Donohoe has raised over £50,000 since being launched on Sunday.
Investigative journalist Donal MacIntyre is at the helm of the documentary project, and told donors he had put together a team of investigators to look into the case on the request of Noah Donohoe’s family.
Noah, a pupil at St Malachy’s College, was aged fourteen when he was found dead in a storm drain in North Belfast in June 2020, six days after he left his family home. He disappeared while cycling from his home in South Belfast to meet up with friends across the city.
His family have tried to secure answers to many questions which have been left unanswered since his death almost three years ago.
Significant concern has been expressed over the quality of the PSNI investigation, along with considerable distrust in the local community over the way the investigation has been handled to date.
The crowdfunding appeal said that Mr McIntrye was hoping to raise £150,000 to complete the documentary investigation.
“We have engaged leading and eminent investigators including a renowned Medical Examiner, one of the world’s leading criminologists and profilers, Professor David Wilson, Cyber and Forensic specialist, Andy Crocker, formerly of the UK’s Serious Crime Unit, former DI Clive Driscoll, who solved the Stephen Lawrence case, as well as our own journalistic team of awarding winning researchers and investigators,” he said.
“Now, as recent, crucial developments shed new light on the case, we ask for your help to continue our investigation and complete a documentary film that will bring the truth of this case to as wide an audience as possible,” Mr MacIntyre said.
Taking to Twitter, MacMcIntyre said that journalists “have a crucial role in society in holding power to account,” adding that “the answer is transparency”.
The fundraising effort began as an exclusive report in The Sunday World revealed that the Belfast teenager had been captured on CCTV returning home at 3am the night before he disappeared.
An account set up to raise awareness about the documentary said the “objectivity of independent experts” was “the only way forward” in the wake of the revelations, claiming that Noah’s case has been handled to date in a “neglectful and contradictory” manner.
In the wake of last night's revelations about the PSNI's neglectful and contradictory handling of Noah's case, the objectivity of independent experts is the only way forward. #NoahsArmy #NoahDonohoe #JusticeForNoahDonohoe https://t.co/sAj1jm779S
— Independent Noah Donohoe Investigation Fund (@indifund) June 18, 2023
The exclusive report, by Nicola Tallant, claimed that the police hid the trip from Noah’s family, and that they hadn’t been told that Noah had left his home just 14 hours before his disappearance.
“Fourteen-year-old Noah Donohoe snuck out of his Belfast home at 3,30am on the day he would disappear and returned almost 35 minutes later after an unexplained and secret trip,” the Sunday World reported.
The paper claimed that the footage was only revealed to lawyers for Fiona Donohoe, Noah’s mother, more than two years after her son’s tragic disappearance.
“In the week while Noah was missing, PSNI officers asked me ‘if Noah could have snuck out at any time from the apartments without my knowledge. I told them that there was one key, and all the doors are very squeaky, and I would not have thought it likely. But obviously I was wrong,” Ms Donohoe told the paper.
The revelations were shared by Mr MacIntyre. The paper also reports that Ms Donohoe had “no idea” that her son had left their home, and could provide no clues on where he may have gone.
“I had no idea. I haven’t seen the footage; it is simply too distressing, but my legal team has, and it is shocking and truly concerning. We still have no idea where he was going, if he was meeting anymore, or what was the purpose of the trip,” she told the paper.
Noah’s mother has previously raised concerns that her son may have been coerced into some form of ‘country lines’ illicit activity and this may help explain his unusual journey taken the next day to a part of Belfast the schoolboy, who went missing from his home at Fitzroy Avenue, was not familiar with.
The paper also reports on comments from Andy Crocker, a former senior officer from the UK’s Serious Crime Squad, who is among the independent team of experts who have been enlisted to shed light on Noah’s disappearance three years on.
“As a senior officer on the case, I would immediately have to consider coercion or grooming og the missing child, and today we are talking about potential involvement in drugs,” Crocker told the Sunday World, adding:
“Where did he go? Why? Who did he meet? I am shocked that this key information has been withheld for so long.”
He also told the paper that “huge investigative opportunities” had been missed, including a public appeal to preserve CCTV, ‘ring’ footage, and witness testimonies of anyone who may have seen Noah the night before.
“We might have been able to ascertain the purpose of this journey – if there was a coherent one,” he told the paper, adding that he was “perplexed” that a public appeal and investigation into Noah’s journey the night before he disappeared was not conducted, “especially when it appears the PSNI were aware of Noah’s secret trip while they were still searching for him”.
Mr MacIntyre, who previously worked with the Sunday World as a special investigator, claimed to the paper that the PSNI have failed to provide a “coherant explanation” as to why the CCTV was denied to the family, “and apparently the coroner” for more than two years.
He said that the footage shows Noah returning home at 4:05am “soaking wet” and “without his head-phones and Marks and Spencer flip flops”.
Taking to Twitter on Monday, Mr MacIntyrne pressed for answers, writing:
“Why didn’t the PSNI share this with the family? When did they share this with the Coroner? Did both parties keep the family in the dark? Why were expert witnesses not given this key information?”
Why didn’t the PSNI share this with the family? When did they share this with the Coroner? Did both parties keep the family in the dark? Why were expert witnesses not given this key information? @indifund #noah’sarmy #JusticeForNoahDonohoe #NoahDonohoe
— donalmacintyre (@donalmacintyre) June 19, 2023
Tweeting on Tuesday night, Mr MacIntyre said the support for the crowdfunding effort had been “stunning,” as he thanked the 2,500 people who had so far donated. He said that in “an age of cynicism,” he was “proud” to see that people believed in “the power of journalism”.
We are so grateful for your support- stunning- we can only do it with your support – your messages are really moving- we are driven by every donation- I am
so proud that in an age of cynicism you believe in the power of journalism! Thank you – all 2500 of you! So far!— donalmacintyre (@donalmacintyre) June 20, 2023
Neither Coroner McCrisken or the PSNI have commented on the claims, as per the time of this report.