Noah Donohoe: the latest news is very bad

[MNettersForNoahAndFiona]

Many Mumsnetters will have already seen and kindly supported my threads and those of others about the disappearance and death of young Noah Donohoe in Belfast in June 2020. For those who haven't, Noah's naked body was retrieved from a drain after he had been missing for 6 days. Two years later, his grieving mother Fiona, with her sister Niamh at her side, is still having to fight for the truth about her adored son's disappearance and death and for justice for him.

Yesterday, Fiona was given official notice by the government/NIO that a Public Interest Immunity Certificate has been granted. It was signed by the new Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Shailesh Vara, MP for North West Cambridgeshire. This means that the police/PSNI are allowed to keep hundreds of pages of information from their botched investigation into the disappearance and death of this innocent and precious child secret. It was received by the police/PSNI and Crown Solicitors Office on the 19th July and his mother was not told for over a week.

Mr Vara was appointed after Brandon Lewis resigned from Boris Johnson's cabinet. He has only been in his post as NI Secretary for two weeks. This is not a good start. Signing the PII Certificate so swiftly indicates to me that he has not taken due time and care to learn all the facts in Noah's case. I think anyone who concludes from this that Mr Vara is just a government and police puppet could be forgiven.

For those Mumsnetters not in Northern Ireland who believe that PII Certificates don't concern you, a PII Certificate application from the police/PSNI protected Robert Howard, a known prolific and violent child killer and rapist. It allowed him to travel to England, Scotland and Ireland. He was only brought to justice when he raped and killed a child in Kent. This is only one example of many.

If you are not outraged, then you have not been paying attention. What can you do? Please think about this and do what you can. Please join us in raising awareness about Noah on social media, with your own government representatives and mainstream media. If you want to contact Shailesh Vara directly about Noah's case:
members.parliament.uk/member/1496/contact
Email at NIO: [email protected]
He is also on Twitter:
twitter.com/ShaileshVara

Here is a factual and reliable pinned Twitter thread for people new to Noah's story or wanting to know more:
mobile.twitter.com/MarymoBelfast/status/1370453351616425985
Here is Fiona's podcast:

Here is a Channel 4 News report: www.channel4.com/news/noah-donohoe-family-seek-answers-over-belfast-teenagers-death And please, if you haven't already, do still join the 309,146 people who have showed they care by signing Fiona's petition. Link in the OP of this thread: www.mumsnet.com/talk/petitions_noticeboard/4573833-noah-donohoe-his-mothers-fight-for-the-truth-and-justice-please-help-stop-the-police-coroner-and-brandon-lewis-from-keeping-investigation-files-into-the-death-of-a-child-secret-thread-3?

Thank you sincerely for reading and for your support. 💙

TLDR:
As Marion Wright Edelman said, if we don't stand up for children, then we don't stand for much. Shame on you, Shailesh Vara. AIBU?

But I'll tell you what I do know: If this were my child, I would talk to anyone.
And I mean, anyone.
Not naïve at all. The best and most successful peacemakers in history have taken this approach.

As a parent, if this were my child, me too.

@MNettersForNoahAndFiona fantastic to see so much support. Sadly I'm far too far away to have been there but there in spirit.

Thank you @Dobbysgotthesocks 💙

I'm also pleased to report that Fiona's petition now has 310,580 signatures and counting. 💙

Oh I know exactly which element of the alphabet soup is allegedly involved. And I absolutely condemn that. And I condemn all those who stood by and said and did nothing to help.

That wasn't my meaning alleging any particular group was involved by condemning the alphabet soup.

I think they're all responsible for the deep rooted backwards hate they have ingrained into society over the years, equally guilty.

Move fucking on.

No one wants their silly shit old fashioned opinions, they disagree for the sake of disagreeing.

It took 300,000 and an election before SF spoke out properly supporting Fiona.

Let's not make this about any of those with their political agenda.

That's, sadly, not what I'm hearing this afternoon and evening.

@exnewwifeproblems Don't feed into it then - be a collie not a sheep.

Anyway absolutely great turn out at Strabane.

I wasn't there unfortunately though the photos speak for themselves.

The love and support was amazing.

The car parks were full, @EmeraldShamrock1 Heart-warming to see all the support from right across the communities at such short notice for this gorgeous boy, his mummy and his auntie.

I have to wonder how the Chief Constable, Coroner and NI Secretary sleep at night.

Yes it is great to see communities uniting in support of Noah.

Great work from everyone who came out. 👏

I'm pleased to report that Fiona's petition now has 311,162 signatures and counting. Please keep signing and sharing. Thank you. 💙

It's so good to see people like Professor Benjamin Zephaniah - poet, writer, musician, Costa Book Awards, National Book Awards, Radio 4 Book of the Week etc - again tweeting his support for Noah and against the PII Certificate:
'There's a thing called Public Interest Immunity Certificate. It can do things like stopping you from investigating how your children die.... Really.
Justice for Noah.'

I googled but couldn't see any mention of the ex Toaiseach Leo Varadkar speaking out for Noah.

He is mixed race and was an academic student who qualified from medical school, he usually is comfortable speaking out, he is a big supporter of the peace process.

Things are very fragile since Brexit alongside the NI protocol maybe that is the reason he hasn't? North/South/UK relations were rubbing along nicely for a decent time until Brexit negotiations around NI started.

You could contact him @EmeraldShamrock1 ? Let us know how you get on if you do.

Fiona and Niamh are organising a peaceful protest on Saturday 13th August 2022 in Belfast. Further details are to be finalised and will follow soon, but they want to give advance notice of the date and place, so that hopefully as many people as possible will be able to arrange to join them.

Fiona and Niamh thank everyone who attended the peaceful protests in Strabane and Derry yesterday against the PII Certificate decision. This show of support not only gives them strength to fight on, but also shows those in power that Noah has a voice and they need to listen.

Please think about whether you are able to be in Belfast on Saturday 13th August to lend your voice and your support to Noah. All are welcome and very much needed in this peaceful protest against the PII certificate and for the truth for Fiona and justice for Noah. Noah cannot speak up for himself and is relying on all decent people to speak up for him.

Thank you.

I will give it a shot, can't hurt to contact him.

Further details:
Saturday 13th August, 2022
1pm
City Hall, Belfast

Children welcome.

From Niamh Donohoe:
Protest against the abuse of PII
Stand in solidarity with us
Be Noah's Voice💙⚡🙏
💙Fight Against PII & Fight For the Safety of All Our Children💙
⚡WHEN: Sat 13th August 2022at 1pm
⚡WHERE: CITY HALL, Belfast.

Pleased to report that the petition against the PII Certificate is now up to 312,180 signatures and still climbing - please continue to sign and share it. Thank you.

I'm obviously hoping that the withheld docs contain useful info, but I'm still a bit sceptical as to the extent they can be redacted and remain cohesive.

Like, if their claims of withholding them to protect the personal safety/identity of individuals are actually true, they surely won't be able to say much at all about the communities their undercover agents/informants are stationed in, for example. The info would have to be vague enough to the point of being incoherent surely.

This concerns about 600 pages. That's a lot of information they are trying to hide.

OK, so I'm reading that the PII is to enable the actual redacting of personal info like reference numbers which might identify individuals and things like names and addresses, not to actually withhold the document itself. If so, I don't think I can really agree that this info should be released in a non redacted manner.

We're likely talking about info that can identify undercover police and informants stationed in the community, or maybe even people who've been investigated and deemed to not be involved.

If a family member of mine was working undercover and had, for example, been asked to do some investigating to see if Noah's death was linked to the groups he was infiltrating, I'd not want his cover blown or identity leaked to the public. Same if a family member had been investigated due to being in the area at the time, but then proved innocent due to having an alibi or whatever. I'd defo not want their identity leaked to the public tbh.

The other question is whether some of these people actually deserve to be protected. If they are involved in what happened to Noah or in covering it up, then they should be brought to justice by the police/PSNI, not protected by them - even if a deal was allegedly done at the time for the return of Noah's body.