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?

Do you understand that is very much the police/PSNI saying 'move along, nothing to see here' @YesJess ? Anything of that nature can be redacted. This concerns hundreds of pages.
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.”
But they did not locate Noah, a vulnerable child, did they? They left him for 6 days until his naked body was retrieved from a dirty drain. And they did not utilise every method available to them. Just a few of very, very many examples being: no overtime paid when Noah was missing, houses not searched on the road Noah was last seen running naked, distressed and exhausted, very limited forensics being done, only 22 out of 118 CCTV cameras checked, bins allowed to be emptied on that road, search and rescue volunteers desperate to help being kept waiting, standing by with their highly specialist dogs and then being sent by the police to the wrong area. I could go on and on.

But at some point it might become unintelligible to read due to redactions, which would then not satisfy people.

For example, if it said (paraphrasing):

'We investigated the possibility that <redacted> might have been a factor in Noah's disappearance. The team decided to conduct a <redacted> through the use of <redacted>.'

It could absolutely be a case of police incompetence but it could also be that it's just not possible to redact some details whilst still keeping the context of the document.

Even if they can't make all the information public surely they can at the very least give Fiona and family sufficient information to know what happened! The public don't need to know. Fiona deserves the truth.

I can't get past the fact that people in Northwood road saw Noah, heard him screaming from 6pm till he went quiet around 3am.
There were parents living on that street. People heard his screams. People on that road know what happened. You can't get from the road to the storm drain without going through gardens of those houses.

Yes, it sounds like a disorganised shitshow and could very possibly be a case of the police trying to cover their arses. But it might also be a case of the police wanting to protect innocent people and also not give away their methods which may yet save other more fortunate people in the future.

There are a lot of posters who seem to have absolute certainty that it's foul play, likely not helped by the emotive nature of the case, but nobody really knows.

Have been following this and bumping the threads where I can, am so very sorry to read all this. A cold fear hits my heart at the thought of something happening my own little gossin so I can't imagine how Fiona is coping with this. Nothing will give her Noah back but I hope she at least gets answers 💙💙💙

Unfortunately it looks like Noah's mum will never know. Even if it is the case that reductions mean the entire 100 pages are unintelligible (which I doubt), why not release it so his mother knows they aren't hiding anything other than witness details and police techniques?

The PSNI have failed Noah. They claimed it was accidental death without looking for any evidence. There was no investigation, no reenactment of his last movement, no leaflets or searches.

There are no answers to so many questions. Why was he naked? How did he end up so far into a storm drain with no scratches or injuries? Where is his missing clothes?

My heart breaks for Fiona. I hope she gets the truth she deserves.

RIP Noah 💙

I think the police/PSNI are doing a very good job of this themselves, with their extensive use of PIIs and informants - see Robert Howard - and in some cases corruption, laziness, bigotry, racism, collusion and incompetence.

Are you aware of what happened to the recent whistleblowers in the PSNI? Or of the depraved and bigoted PSNI officers found to have posed, exposed, photographed and ridiculed the bodies of people who had died by suicide?

This is a disgrace. My heart breaks for Noah’s Mum.

There are a lot of posters who seem to have absolute certainty that it's foul play, likely not helped by the emotive nature of the case, but nobody really knows.
Oh yes they do.

Press reports today said that one of the officers was suspended on full pay for almost 6 years. He also had a second job during this time. Disgusting.

To take pictures of a victim, to move and pose his body. To expose his genitals. To laugh and share these images in a WhatsApp group. This is the PSNI?

So you live near me then...

Is his nickname Absent Adam?

I'd like to think he'd help but I despair

I knew very little about the PSNI before reading about this case on MN. Absolutely horrified. None of this makes any sense. Having had experience of some pretty serious police corruption I feel for Fiona so deeply. Do we think what happened will eventually come out after years? I can see this becoming like the Lawrence case.

Terrible news. There must be a lot to hide.

Its akin to torture for the poor family. No one deserves that fate.

This fucking stinks.

@YesJess have you read anything about the case at all?

Noah was found 950metres up a storm drain.
A storm drain made of concrete that was pitch black and less than a metre in diameter in most places.
It was full of debris.
Noah had no scratches or damage to his body which if he had crawled into the drain naked he would have done.
That storm drain is tidal. It filled with water twice daily the force of which would have pushed him out if he had been in there the entire 6 days.
There was no water damage to his body. After six days submerged in water (and sewage) his body would have been badly affected. It wasn't it was perfect.
People saw Noah heading up Northwood road towards two men. Those men have never been traced or come forward.
His bike and clothing were found in various location on Northwood road.
Some of his clothing was never found.
A child was heard screaming at the back of Northwood road between 6pm and 3am the night Noah went missing.
His laptop was found in the possession of another adult. That adult has never been questioned nor charged.

Now tell me there's no foul play!

I have been following this in complete despair-bumping threads and tweeting etc and I feel such despair and anger-I can't think how Fiona and the rest of Noah's family feel.
My heart aches for them.

I agree we need a ballsy fearless investigative journalist who will poke.

It is absolutely shocking and reeks of corruption.

We won't stop

Unbelievable so sorry for Noah’s mum ♥️

The community must know full well what happened to him.

What do you think happened then?

The more I read, the less it all makes sense to me tbh.

I think the withheld police docs possibly show police incompetence in managing the initial search and follow ups. Likely very damaging for them which is why they might want to withhold them.

I can totally understand how frustrating it must be for his family to know that there is info that is being withheld pertaining to the police process. However, my guess is that this relates to the investigative procedures and fuck ups after the tragic event.

I feel like it's maybe a bit of a red herring in some ways and the real answers lie in finding out why Noah was suddenly seen cycling naked in an unfamiliar area miles away from where he was going. And why he walked down the side of somebody's house. Also, how he lost his bag.

Was he injected with drugs? Was he assaulted like the other boy in the same area was? I'm not convinced these answers will be found in the description of the police investigative methods etc.

I feel like it's maybe a bit of a red herring in some ways and the real answers lie in finding out why Noah was suddenly seen cycling naked in an unfamiliar area miles away from where he was going. And why he walked down the side of somebody's house. Also, how he lost his bag.

@YesJess

He became naked in an area that is covered in CCTV. Yet none of it has been recovered. It's on one of the busiest roads in the area. People must have seen him. Must have seen who was with him.

His bag went missing at the same time. Within this area completely covered by CCTV.

Recently the police posted about their success in catching petty thieves using exactly that CCTV.

There is no access from Northwood road to the storm drain. He didn't go down the side of a house. The only way he could have for there is over fences.

That's interesting. I didn't know that, but the article I originally read categorically said he was seen disappearing down the side of a house. The CCTV thing is odd. I know for a fact that the police don't always have their cameras working, but as you say they've recently boasted about having used them.

What I can't get away from is what caused him to act in such an odd manner. Something was defo not right.

likely not helped by the emotive nature of the case,
It is emotive, yes, extremely, of course it is. That's not why I'm here. I'm here because of the facts. Please read the Twitter thread and watch the podcast.

Thank you @RhannionKPSS . Some suggestions in the OP. 💙

Yes, and I believe that the police/PSNI do too.