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?

Just a few suggestions of people to tweet but please add your own - anyone you think could help or needs to be made more aware of Noah's case and the PII - the media, politicians or those with a public profile and lots of followers. Obviously these are for Twitter and are not MN user names, which is why I've had to leave a gap after the @ :
@ ShaileshVara @ NIOgov @ naomi_long @ ChiefConPSNI @ PoliceServiceNI
@ PSNIBelfastN @ BBCNews @ BBCNewsNI @ BBCSpotlightNI @ EurovisionBFS @ SkyNews @ Channel4News @ itvnews

Please feel free to use any of the images or information I have posted on the thread if they are being used in good faith to benefit Noah, Fiona and Niamh.

I’ve emailed Mr Vara and asked for his reasons for signing, I’m not sure he has to reply, but we’ll see! Keep going @MNettersForNoahAndFiona

Thank you @Waterfallgirl - versus the football trending on Twitter tonight obviously, but many, many tweets for Noah and they're still coming! 💙

Including a welcome statement from the Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Cllr Sandra Duffy:
'I will be writing to the British SoS Shailesh Vara asking him to reverse his decision to grant a PII Certificate to conceal information into the case of 💙Noah Donohue 💙
I stand with Fiona Donohue and her family in their campaign for justice and truth. #JusticeForNoahDonohoe'

Absolutely heartbreaking news. My thoughts are with the family, once again. 💙

Thank you @Whatinthewonderingfuckisthat 💙

From Niamh Donohoe: 'There are rallies happening on various locations across NI tonight. If you check our official Facebook group MyNoah Donohoe you will see times & locations. If people can't attend and wish to support, you could go and stand outside your local PSNI station or Government building.'

From Niamh Donohoe: Today at 1pm Sinn Féin in Derry have organised a protest outside Strand Road PSNI Barracks. If you are in the area and can attend please do. We need your feet on the street, the powers that be need to see that we are all prepared to fight this. Please show solidarity. Be Noah's Voice🙏

ALL WELCOME. 💙

From Niamh Donohoe: Tonight at 7pm outside Strabane PSNI station Cllr Paul Gallagher & Cllr Raymond Barr have arranged a protest.
Please🙏now more than ever we need your feet on the street. Fight this abuse of power, for Noah, for your children.
Noah's life mattered, all children's lives matter💙⚡🙏

@MNettersForNoahAndFiona I wonder whether Doreen Lawrence might be able to help?

Doreen Lawrence is aware of Noah's case, @Dobbysgotthesocks - thank you. She tweeted her support back in November 2020. It would not hurt at all to contact her though now about Noah if anyone would like to:
members.parliament.uk/member/4290/contact

Noah's story has been described as 'Northern Ireland's Stephen Lawrence case'.

Thank you MNHQ.

Apologies for the withdrawals everyone. Although the information was from a legitimate source, I have just heard that it is being checked again. I've decided it's better to withdraw it for now.

Would this post be better suited to another part of Mumsnet.I don't see the aibu aspect to promoting protests led by political parties.

No it wouldn't, pp. I'm sorry that you feel that way, but you will be able to see my actual AIBU in the OP and 302 Mumsnetters have voted on it so far, 88% in favour of the OP. There are many posts on the thread and you seem to be picking on only one or two of them. I have no interest in the politics, only that the support is there for Noah, Fiona, Niamh, justice and truth, and against the PII Certificate.

This has nothing to do with politics. This is about an innocent child who has been killed and the circumstances around his death covered up.
The only protest mentioned on here is about exposing the truth of what happened to Noah. Nothing to do with any political parties

"The only protest mentioned on here is about exposing the truth of what happened to Noah. Nothing to do with any political parties"
A protest organised by a political party is being promoted on this thread, where's the aibu?
Posts have gone up and been taken down, where's the accuracy or sense in that.

"an innocent child who has been killed"
This is totally subjudice.

Have you actually bothered to read the thread and the evidence?
If your not interested please feel free to scroll on past!

The majority of your points have already been answered pp, so I refer you back to that. There's no point in repeating ourselves, is there? The first protest rally against the PII at 2pm today was attended by people of all politics and none, all faiths and none, people of all ages, backgrounds and walks of life. What united them was their willingness to turn out at short notice in the middle of their working day or other plans and stand up for Noah and against the PII Certificate. Do you object to that?

Posts have gone up and been taken down, where's the accuracy or sense in that.
They all related to the same, singular piece of information, also reported by several established news outlets. I asked for them to be taken down as soon as I became aware that there might be a problem with the original source. That happened very quickly and I have explained on the thread for clarity. I refer you back to that. Personally, I think that shows good sense and that I firmly believe accuracy to be important on such an important subject.

I refer you back to my post about the police/PSNI's own speculations. Please, avail yourself of the facts before posting further. Anybody would think that you are trying to shut people up? Many have tried and failed, I'm afraid. The time for keeping quiet and trusting the police and coroner is over, and that is of their own making, together with Mr Vara and the UK government.