Noah Donohoe was likely still alive when he went into a storm culvert, an expert told jurors. The evidence was laid out at Belfast Coroner's Court on Monday.
Expert describes how boy could have entered culvert
The inquest resumed after the Easter break with Professor Carolyn Roberts, an expert commissioned by the Coroner’s Service, reading her findings to the jury. She told the court she had visited the site and reviewed extensive material before preparing her report.
She concluded it was likely Noah climbed through the metal grille at the culvert entrance and moved into the tunnel alive. "The bars of the grille are enoughly widely spaced that a large child or even a small man could deliberately climb through without undue effort," the report said, and she added that the boy could have slipped between the vertical metal bars.
The report is clear: the culvert runs under the M2 motorway, beneath train tracks and past Seaview stadium toward Belfast Lough. Inside, the passage is complex and nearly dark, which the expert says could have disoriented someone. Professor Roberts said walking in a crouched position along that route in near darkness could easily cause disorientation.
Her account to the court linked the tunnel layout, limited light and rising water levels as conditions that would have made navigation difficult for someone unfamiliar with the passage.
Timeline laid out at court
Noah, who was 14, was missing for six days after leaving his home in south Belfast on 21 June 2020. He had been riding his bike to meet two friends in the Cavehill area of the city.
His naked body was recovered from the Premier Drive stream culvert on 27 June 2020, after a search that located him in the tunnel section beneath Northwood Road.
A post-mortem examination gave the likely cause of death as drowning, the court heard. Professor Roberts’ report set out how tidal movements could have filled the culvert and created conditions in which drowning became possible.
The crucial detail is the timing of the high tide. The report noted that high tide on 21 June 2020 was likely to have occurred between 11.30pm and midnight — roughly five or six hours after Noah was last seen — giving him time to move several hundred metres along the culvert.
How the environment inside the culvert contributed
Professor Roberts described the internal layout as "relatively complex". She said that in near darkness, with a network of pipes and cold conditions, a person could become confused about which way to go.
Her written findings argued that water would have risen quickly in the section where Noah’s body was later found. At the point where he was recovered, the culvert would likely have been almost completely filled around and above that area during high tide.
She also considered the possibility that the boy might have survived for more than one tidal cycle inside the culvert but judged that the cold ground and air temperatures, especially with a naked body, wouldn't have been supportive of prolonged survival.
Her report estimated Noah could have crawled or walked in a stooped manner for about 600 metres into the culvert before reaching the quadrant from which his body was recovered.
Inquest procedure and evidence presented
The hearing at Belfast Coroner's Court is being conducted with a jury. Professor Roberts' evidence was presented as part of a body of material commissioned by the Coroner’s Service to assist the inquest.
The expert described the physical features of the grille, the likely sequence of tide-induced flooding and the internal complexity of the culvert. She read passages from her report to explain how each factor could have affected someone moving through the tunnel in semi-darkness.
Noah’s last confirmed sighting on the afternoon of 21 June, and the later timing of high tide that night, were linked in the report to show a plausible sequence by which he could have travelled inward and then encountered rising water.
Her report lays out a likely sequence and the culvert's physical conditions rather than alleging criminal conduct or naming any party at fault. The inquest jury will consider those findings alongside other evidence as the proceedings continue.
Local reactions and wider questions
The inquest has already drawn public attention across northern communities, with questions about how a young teenager ended up in a storm drain and whether anything could have been done to prevent it. But the court's immediate remit is fact-finding — to establish how Noah died and the circumstances around his death.
Professor Roberts highlighted grille spacing and accessibility; those points could prompt officials to review culvert design and security once the inquest concludes. The description of the grille spacing and the distance a person could travel inside the tunnel were facts the expert emphasised in court.
At the hearing the jury is concentrating on the physical evidence and the timeline between Noah's disappearance and when his body was found. The jury will weigh the report alongside other testimony to reach findings about the sequence of events.
How communities and authorities respond outside the courtroom — whether by reviewing infrastructure or safety signage — will depend on subsequent recommendations from the coroner and any official reviews that follow the inquest's conclusions.
What the report does and doesn't say
The expert report makes a series of technical assertions about how Noah likely entered and moved through the culvert and how tidal action could have led to drowning. It also notes the probability that the boy might have been alive when he entered the tunnel.
It does not, however, speak to motive or to any external involvement. The inquest as a public process is intended to establish facts; it's not a criminal trial. Any further legal or policy outcomes would depend on the coroner's conclusions and on whether other authorities carry out additional investigations or reviews.
Still, the evidence Professor Roberts presented — from grille spacing to internal layout, to tide timing and the 600-metre estimate — provides jurors with a technical picture of what likely happened inside that section of the Premier Drive culvert on and after 21 June 2020.
As the inquest continues, other witnesses and experts may be called to expand on or challenge the picture she painted.
Next steps at the inquest
The hearings will proceed with the jury considering all evidence offered, including the expert's report. The Coroner’s Service commissioned the work to assist in establishing the facts, and the material will remain central to the jury's deliberations.
What the coroner records as formal findings will be important for Noah’s family, for any institutional reviews that follow and for the public record in north Belfast.
Thing is, inquests like this often raise questions that outlast the hearing itself — about public safety and about oversight. The court's immediate job, however, is narrow: to decide what the available evidence shows about how Noah died.
One-sentence paragraphs are powerful. They punctuate the record. They force attention on a fact. The jury will now Look at the detail they heard from Professor Roberts and other witnesses as they work towards a verdict.
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Professor Carolyn Roberts found high tide was likely between 11.30pm and midnight on 21 June 2020.
This article was created with AI assistance.
