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?

Well, their identities won't be protected if they're found guilty surely. It read more to me that this is info around the police investigate methods (notes etc) and anonymity for the people investigating.

I think the confusion lies around the fact that a PII can be used to withhold a document. However, they seem to be saying that they will release a redacted version for the inquest, which is what people on here are asking for.

It's important not to just repeat and accept the police /PSNI and their legal team's claims about why the PII certificate is being used. Fiona has always accepted that some redactions could be necessary to protect the innocent. The PSNI rely hugely on informants, paying them £1.6m over 5 years. There has long been questions about incompetence, collusion, bigotry and corruption. The police should actually rely on actual detection and forensics, and policing fairly and equally, not on questionable relationships with (some) informants.

The guilty will not be prosecuted if they are being protected by the PSNI via the PII certificate - just like they did with Robert Howard. It took the English police to bring him to at least partial justice after he had raped and murdered another child, in Kent.

Neither will the guilty be prosecuted as things stand - because the police/PSNI are not investigating Noah's disappearance and death as a crime. 'No foul play' they cried, immediately his body was found, before he was identified and before a post mortem - it is a coronial investigation only.

Ah, I see your point about it potentially also protecting the guilty. It's certainly a odd chain of events either way. What seems odd is how Noah was seen alive near the storm drain and without anybody with him.

Had he disappeared elsewhere and then been found in the tunnel, I'd have 100% suspected him having been put there, but it seems he made his own way there, or certainly at least looks that way.

And there's also his odd behaviour prior to this - losing his bag and riding around naked. I thought at first that he could plausibly have been injected with something, but the toxicology report was clean. It all just doesn't add up.

I'm going to steal this from someone. I'm sure he won't mind, for Noah.

'There was a deathly silence during the summer of 2020, it started near the end of June. Does anyone else remember it? Personally, I cant forget it. In this place we call home… All of the authorities when pressed on it replied with a curiously similar response, ‘leave the family to grieve and stop speculating’. A high profile journalist did write just the once about the subject of Noah Donohoe, but rather than discuss the particularities of the case, they dedicated their column inches to dismissing those who were ‘speculating’ on social media. Questions should be based on fact and not speculation, the reporter reminded us. I could not agree more. That sounds like good advice to us all, so let’s deal only with facts.

‘No foul play’ was announced to the media and public approximately forty minutes from the time his remains were discovered deep in that drain. Note that this was before a post mortem examination could take place. Now it is actually common for medical examiners to determine the cause of death without the need for a post mortem examination, but these are always in non suspicious circumstances. A simple example that we can all understand, the person who dies in their home who was in their 70s or 80s, with a known history of heart disease, these kinds of deaths are just that, natural deaths which do not require further investigation, and moreover, no family member is asking questions about the cause of death either. Contrast this with the circumstances of Noah Donohoe’s death, and then ask the police the following factual question: What were the exact circumstances and factors that led to the determination that there was 'No Foul Play’, upon the discovery of Noah’s remains? Are you also saying that there was no suspicious circumstances in his death? Bear in mind that this was a 14 year old child who had been missing for six days, who was miles from home, and was last seen on CCTV footage without his clothes, running, and looking exhausted. This is a question borne of facts, not speculation. Indeed it is a fact that Noah Donohoe died under very suspicious circumstances, and you better believe that if a child was last seen on CCTV, miles from home, naked, running, and looking exhausted, that this would be considered suspicious and further investigation would be required, but it did not happen here. Why was there no police investigation into the death of Noah Donohoe? Because what we are being told is quite simply not believable.

Noah Donohoe deserves justice, his family deserve the truth.'

Thank you for reading.

I'm afraid, YesJess, that you are repeating the police/PSNI's version of events and there are some inaccuracies and assumptions in your post.

What seems odd is how Noah was seen alive near the storm drain and without anybody with him.
Noah was not seen near the storm drain. He did not even know it existed well-hidden behind the houses and difficult fences in Northwood Road, just like many of the local residents. He was last seen near the houses. He knocked on at least one door. The police/PSNI have only allowed a short clip of the CCTV to be seen by Fiona, Niamh and their legal team. What happened before and after that? Two men were also seen on that road. They would have seen Noah, naked, at the very least. Who were they? Have they been identified by the police and interviewed as witnesses or suspects - any forensics taken from them? Why didn't they help Noah or get help for him?

but it seems he made his own way there
There is no evidence to show that Noah went to or entered the storm drain himself. His body was retrieved from the drain near an entrance to it 950m away from Northwood Road and six days later.

And there's also his odd behaviour prior to this - losing his bag and riding around naked
There is no evidence that he 'lost' his rucksack, his phone or that he took his own clothing off and willingly. CCTV footage and witnesses have not been shown or said to have see him discarding his rucksack, his phone or his clothes. Where are the rest of Noah's clothes, especially his North Face coat which seems to have been seen in two places at once? Was it dropped in the street when he fell off his bike as one witness said, or was it some distance away from that under and on the sofa at Daryl Paul's flat with Maria Nolan and being offered for sale at a party, as two witnesses have said?

It all just doesn't add up.
It doesn't, does it?

Just posting this again as it's very important and I don't want it to be missed.

Bumping Justice for Noah

We support you in your fight for justice

If there was going to be any kind of violence in reprisal, it would have happened by now. It's just an excuse, a smoke-screen. As you say @SequinsandStilettos , it's more than two years since Noah died and alleged names have been in the public domain. It is well-known that Fiona does not support violence or seek revenge, and that is completely supported and respected. Fiona wants only the truth and justice for Noah, and for other children to be safe in the future.

The police/PSNI state that that person was not involved @SequinsandStilettos . Other named persons are alleged to have been involved alongside that person in what happened to Noah, to have known what was happening and in 'dealing with' the situation afterwards. The police/PSNI state that no person was involved at any stage with Noah. They are not investigating it as a crime. They are seeking no-one. One problem with this is that they have produced so very little of the available CCTV footage for Fiona, Niamh and their legal team to believe with any confidence that this is the truth. What happened before and after the few very short clips? What about CCTV from the many, many other cameras in the area? What about dashcam footage?

As we know, Daryl Paul and Maria Nolan have been charged and Paul sentenced - Nolan did not turn up for sentencing - for the theft/handling of Noah's belongings. They can hardly be described as upstanding citizens from their known history, behaviour and contacts. Despite widespread publicity that Noah was missing, they claim not to have known the belongings were his when they tried to sell his laptop at a Cash Converters shop, and allegedly tried to sell all his belongings at a party. The police/PSNI state that they had no direct contact with Noah, and that Paul 'found' Noah's rucksack containing his named school books and laptop. Despite widespread CCTV in the specific area, the police/PSNI have not shown any to prove where and when this 'finding' took place or the presence of the 'tattooed man' Paul said he saw near them. As in a pp, Noah's still-missing North Face coat is significant here - in two different places yet 'found' by the same man? Nolan named four career criminals in a statement, which she then retracted due to 'memory problems'. The hostel Nolan was living in at the time is close to Fiona and Noah's home, and Fiona had been complaining about criminal and anti-social behaviour by residents and hangers-on there, some of whom watched Noah leave home that day. What about the CCTV footage from the hostel? Why were the police so slow to go to Paul's flat? No forensics taken from either of them or from Nolan's room or Paul's flat? Why was Nolan allowed to just go back to sleep after Noah's laptop was taken by police from under the drawers in her hostel room? Why was Paul even thanked by the police?! I think people could be forgiven for thinking that these two are in it up to their necks.

why are they continuing to cover it up?
I think people could be forgiven, knowing the culture of the PSNI, to suspect collusion, corruption, incompetence, bigotry, racism and deals having been done.

Thank you @Forestgate and @RhannionKPSS 💙

What do you mean by "produce" cctv?

I think people could be forgiven for thinking that these two are in it up to their necks.

This is prejudicial as the case is sub judice. The police are still investigating Noah's disappearance - I know you said not as a crime but it is still a live investigation and under coroner's investigation too.

You would be well advised be more circumspect in what you say in order not to prejudice these investigations.

What do you mean by "produce" cctv?
What has and has not been shown in the very little amount of footage disclosed by the police/PSNI to Fiona, Niamh and their legal team.

But Fiona and her legal team aren't law enforcement authorities, therefore the UKGDPR doesn't allow for that sharing.

Sorry. Posted too soon. And applying the LED. Fiona and her legal team aren't a competent authority?

Thank you for your concern, but if you read it carefully what I have said is just fine, exnewwifeproblems. What I say is carefully worded and widely available elsewhere.

I disagree with you.

You are, gently, entitled to your opinion and I am entitled to disagree.

They deal with the facts presented to them via files of disclosure.

These facts are in black & white on official & legal documents and footage presented to them and prepared by the police/PSNI, their legal counsel & Crown Solicitors Office who work on behalf of the Coroner.

Of course.

I know about disclosure.

What you are talking about wouldn't fall under that.

Just posting this again as it is too important to be missed amongst other posts.

I'm pleased to report that the petition against the PII Certificate now has 312,988 signatures and still climbing. Please, if you can, continue to sign and share. See the OP for the thread with the link. Don't forget to confirm your signature via the email Change will send for it to count. Thank you.