Mother of Noah Donohoe hands in petition to PSNI asking them to release information on son's death

It’s after protesters gathered at the gates of PSNI headquarters in Belfast on Friday.

Noah Donohoe’s 14-year-old’s naked body was found in a Belfast storm drain six days after being reported missing in June 2020 – prompting questions from his family.

Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said he had accepted the petition from Ms Donohoe.

He said: “The Police Service has deep and sincere sympathy with the Donohoe family for the unimaginable pain of their loss.

“I accepted copies of a petition today and assured Fiona that we remain fully committed to finding answers for the Donohoe family.

“The disappearance and death of Noah Donohoe is subject to an ongoing Coronial investigation. The Police Service continue to investigate under their Police (NI) Act 2000 duty, but also provide assistance to the Coroner, so it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”

The petition was started on change.org several weeks ago after an internal PSNI review into the disappearance and death of young Noah Donohoe in 2020 revealed that police chiefs refused to pay overtime to officers assigned to the search operation, citing “financial constraints” and “missing person fatigue” as reasons.

Concerns around the review and also the PSNI’s decision to seek a rare public interest immunity — which is usually only ever invoked for matters of national security — has led to Noah’s mother Fiona fearing that these issues may have hindered police response into finding her son.

Ms Donohoe has now called on PSNI Chief Constable Simon Byrne to release all the files relating to Noah’s case with the petition, which has to date received over 289,000 signatures.

In the petition, Ms Donohoe described her son, an only child, as an “intelligent, smart, gentle boy” who “set off on his bike to meet up with his two friends but never reached his destination”.

“Instead, Noah was found 6 days later in a storm-drain, naked, in a part of Belfast he did not know,” she said.

She questioned why four files containing information on the investigation have not been released to her if police are certain no foul play was involved.

“I as Noah’s mummy have, from the very start of Noah being missing, believed that the police did not use all their resources in finding Noah. This was confirmed when it emerged they had not paid anyone overtime while investigating his death,” she said.

Ms Donohoe said her concerns around forensics being carried out and certain suspects had been dismissed.

“I believe that someone harmed my Noah and that there have been serious and repeated failings in the police investigation of his death. I will never get justice for Noah if I do not get all the information. These four files are vital for us to get the truth we desperately need, to find out what really happened to my precious son.

“I am asking you as the public, some of you as parents, to sign this petition so that Noah gets the justice he truly deserves and to place transparency and accountability where it should rightly be.”