Verdict in Noah Donohoe inquest delivered but questions remain

It’s been more than six years since teenager Noah Donohoe was found dead 600m into a freezing underground water tunnel in Belfast.

His death – and the speculation over what happened to him in the week between his daylight disappearance and the discovery of his body – became a huge news story that provoked countless unanswered questions.

Now, after an inquest and months of exhaustive hearings and long deliberations by a jury, there is a verdict – but much is still unknown about what happened to Noah.

Why, the night before he disappeared, did he leave his home in the middle of the rain-soaked night? Where did he go? Why did he come back 34 minutes later, as documented by CCTV, barefoot?

Hours later, on Sunday 21 June 2020, he left the south Belfast home he shared with his mother for the final time.

Why did he leave and go to an unfamiliar part of north Belfast? Why was the teenager naked when he was last seen in the area of the water tunnel entrance?

And what might have been if he had seen the social media message sent him by one of two friends he planned to meet in north Belfast telling him their plans were cancelled?

An autopsy found Noah had died from drowning, with the tunnel he was found in heading towards Belfast Lough and its tides.

Now, after years of delays, a jury has found that it was possible, but not probable, that failings by the Department of Infrastructure over the tunnel in which he was found contribute to his death.

They also found 13 failings by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) but that these did not in any way contribute to the 14-year-old’s death.

Having spent months in court following all the evidence, it was clearly not an easy process for the men and women of the jury.

They heard from dozens of witnesses and received voluminous amounts of official and expert documentation.

This week they deliberated on Monday and Tuesday. But it came more than two months after the inquest was dramatically adjourned in the early hours after three days of deliberations did not lead to a verdict.