Woman ‘heard high-pitched scream’ on the night Noah Donohoe disappeared

A woman has told the Noah Donohoe inquest that she heard a “high-pitched scream” on the night the schoolboy disappeared.

Another witness told the court she had been scared and hid under the blankets after hearing someone trying to get into her house on the same night.

Noah was 14 when he was found dead in a storm drain in north Belfast in June 2020, six days after leaving home on his bike to meet two friends in the Cavehill area of Belfast.

A post-mortem examination found his death was due to drowning.

The inquest into his death, which is being heard with a jury, is in its third week at Belfast Coroner’s Court.

Noah’s mother Fiona Donohoe has attended every day of the proceedings.

Gemma McMullan, who lives in Northwood Parade, told the jury she had been reading after putting her son to bed on the night of June 21 2020.

She told the court she was still reading after midnight.

She said: “Totally out of the blue, I heard a scream.

“I got up, went into my bathroom, which is at the back of my house, as this is where the scream sounded like it came from.

“I opened the window wide and had a good look about, there was no one around.

“My security lights had not come on, there were no noises at all, and it was pitch black.

“Due to the high-pitched sound of the screen I assumed it was either a young person or a female.”

Sandra Semple told the inquest that at the time she was living in Premier Drive, close to the wasteland where Noah’s body was found.

She said she had been sleeping downstairs in her house in the early hours of June 22.

She told the hearing: “I was in bed watching TV and shifting in and out of sleep.

“At about 3am I was woken by a noise at my back door, it was the back door handle being tried.

“The back door was locked, and whoever was at the back door was moving the handle up and down as if to open it.

“This was the noise I heard.”

Ms Semple said she did not look outside to see who was at her door, but was afraid because she thought someone was trying to break in.

She said: “I hid under the blankets until the next morning.”

A statement was read to the court from Linda Patterson, who has since died.

She described sitting in her living room watching TV when she saw a “figure” on the street on a bicycle.

The statement said: “It caught my attention because it looked like the figure was naked.

“I jumped up and caught the tail-end of this figure, all I could see was a naked bum.

“I shouted to my husband Joe that I had seen a boy cycling naked.”

Ms Patterson said the couple had assumed it was a neighbour “messing about for a joke or a dare”.

Police arrived at her door and she discovered that CCTV footage from her house had filmed Noah cycling past, dropping his bike on the pavement and running off.

Heather Scott told the inquest her son had sent her a photograph of a blue hoodie and trainers left outside his property in Northwood Road and asked her to check his home.

She said she went to check the property and it was “secure”, but the hoodie and trainers were still there.

She told the court: “I thought that perhaps they belonged to somebody who had been drunk.”

She said she lifted the items and placed them over the gate of a derelict property next door.

Ms Scott said she later heard on the radio that Noah was missing and realised the clothes she had moved matched the description of the items she had moved. She then contacted the police.

Earlier, the court heard from residents of Northwood Road, where Noah was last seen.

Chris Morrow said he had been visiting a relative in the road on the evening Noah went missing.

Mr Morrow told the hearing he saw a black bike on its side on the footpath as he was leaving.

He said the following day when he finished work he noticed a black helmet on the street and alerted police after seeing a social media post about a missing boy.

Mr Morrow told the inquest he did not see Noah in the area.

The statement of Mr Morrow’s wife Lauren was then read to the court.

She said she was leaving her grandfather’s house in Northwood Road at around 7pm on the evening of Noah’s disappearance when she saw a black bike lying on its side.

Ms Morrow said she then took her dog for a walk and went into Northwood Crescent where she saw a black skater helmet beside a lamppost.

She said: “I noticed it as it was brand new, and I had thought to myself, why was it sitting there?

“It didn’t appear to have any damage to it.”

A statement from Lauren Russell, another resident, said she had gone to check her front door was locked when she saw a navy jacket lying over a neighbour’s wall.

She went outside and saw a pair of dark trainers with a bright orange or yellow Nike tick on the ground.

She said: “When I looked at it, it was as if somebody had placed them there.”

The inquest will resume on Tuesday.