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?

💙

For those wanting to read the Twitter thread but who are not on Twitter, don't worry. All you need to do is click on my link in the OP or below. If you are asked to log in or sign up, click on log in, then click on x and you will be able to carry on reading. If the thread stops, click on show replies and it will continue.
mobile.twitter.com/MarymoBelfast/status/1370453351616425985

Could we tag all the UK MP's in twitter posts about Noah?

Could we tag all the UK MP's in twitter posts about Noah?
Not forgetting TDs in Ireland and MLAs in NI. You or anyone else can do anything you feel able to as long as it's not abusive. It's essential to Fiona and Niamh, and to Noah's cause and memory, that everyone is respectful - or relatively! - and protests remain peaceful - sometimes noisy, but peaceful!

Thank you @IsFuzzyBeagMise 💙

💙💙

I couldn't agree more @ThirtyThreeTrees - thank you 💙

they have unfortunately learned from previous PII cases that they can get away with them, that nobody is going to hold them accountable in any meaningful way.
As one example, when he was NI Secretary it was Ben Wallace, current MP for Wyre and Preston North, Defence Secretary and almost Conservative leader/PM candidate, who signed the PII Certificate in the shocking case of Robert Howard, mentioned in my OP.

NI is a part of the UK where shady things are done with impunity. MPs from distant English constituencies who are appointed to the NI post will never be held accountable for egregious dereliction of duty by their constituents in the shires.
This has to change. It's 2022.

I have sent an email. Justice for Noah 💙

Someone, or some group, is getting protected.

I'd not heard of Robert Howard - why did he get this protection?

Thank you @Twinsandsome 💙

How is this allowed? I don’t understand. The police ask for trust and then do this? I probably sound incredibly naive. What has potentially happened that they want to hide?

I’ll write to my M.P too- though I’m in Wales…

Bump for you OP.

Bumping this- my heart breaks thinking of Noah, and this is so cruel on top of everything that has happened. 💙

@MNettersForNoahAndFiona
I'm from Belfast myself and hate that this is happening there is far more to this than meets the eye and is being covered up left right and centre by everybody, I hope noah and his family get the justice and answers they deserve so that fiona can aleast rest she got justice her son deserves.💙

I think it's quite possible that information is being withheld to protect individuals or communities which were investigated and found to not be involved - e.g. investigations into whether it was sectarian or politically motivated, which might cause kneejerk violence. For example, if it said they investigated xyz and the evidence was inconclusive, that could still be enough to spur some people to violence where there is already tension.

I agree @DuesToTheDirt

Robert Howard was a police informant. Thanks to the PII certificate and the PSNI, he got away with many terrible things, including the rape and murder of a child, Arlene Arkinson. Her family have had a long and difficult fight for justice. They have called for a public inquiry and this is what is now needed in Noah's case, together with a new investigation by an independent police service.

If the above is the case it mightn't be as simple as redacting names etc as people will then jump to conclusions/make false assumptions.

Cross post. Was replying to my previous.

Thank you @Suzi888 and Wales is equally important, of course. Your email would be welcomed. I'm sorry that I didn't specifically mention Wales in my OP. At the time I was listing the places Robert Howard was known to have travelled to.

As pp said this stinks to high heaven.
They're covering up at the expense of a grieving family. God forgive them for what they've put an already traumatised family through

The police are saying that the withheld files 'could potentially include personal information about witnesses, such as their address or contact details.'

Also that they 'relate to police methodology, such as IT technology used in the investigation.'

“The reasons that this is important is that these techniques are not only used in cases like this, but they are also used in tackling terrorism and serious and organised crime,” he said.

“We want to protect these capabilities for those reasons and so that when we are sadly called upon to locate vulnerable people in the future, as we have done in this case, we can utilise every method we have available to us.”

Bit cryptic, but I'm wondering if they're saying that allowing their methods to be released will allow future perpetrators (paedophiles, abductors, terrorists, etc) to better cover their tracks with the knowledge of the police methodology and what tactics the police will employ.

Corruption to the highest level, its an absolute disgrace. Details of witnesses amd police techniques can be redacted, that explanation for withholding files is bullshit. If that were the case no victim's family would ever be able to know anything. Stinks of a hate crime and cover up, which makes you wonder who was involved.

This is an outrageous injustice, I’m so sorry. What can we do?

I don’t believe a word of that statement! It’s ridiculous that any police service can use those reasons to cover up the death of a child What the hell are they hiding ? Who is being protected & why?

this reminds me of the recent case of an abused woman who was trying to speak out about an MI5 agent to warn other women about him & was told not to speak out as he is “ an excellent agent on the field”