The hearing into the 14-year-old’s death was told his friend sent the message to Noah on Instagram, but as he had already left his home he would not have had an internet connection to have received it.
The long-running inquest, which is in its 15th week, heard a range of evidence on Thursday, including around the examination of Noah’s devices and online accounts, a photograph of a hand taken on his phone after he had gone missing and statements from divers who found his body in a storm drain.
It also heard of the interest then Chief Constable Simon Byrne had taken, visiting officers involved in searching for Noah, and expressing concern for the toll on them across the week-long effort.
Former Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Simon Byrne. (PA)
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Noah had been planning to meet with school friends at Cavehill after setting out on his bike on Sunday June 21, 2020.
While initially he had set out in that direction, he later veered off in a different direction towards the Shore Road.
His naked body was found in an underground water tunnel on June 27, six days after he left home.
A post-mortem examination found the likely cause of death was drowning.
Further evidence from Simon Young, an expert technical analyst, over the examination of Noah’s phone, Chromebook and Kindle, as well as his online accounts, was heard on Thursday.
BEST QUALITY AVAILABLE Undated family handout file photo issued by the PSNI of 14-year-old Noah Donohoe.
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Mr Young said Noah’s Google account reveals his last search on June 21 was for the Cavehill area at around 5.34pm, before he left his home in south Belfast.
He said a message from Noah’s friend Jay was sent on Instagram at 5.41pm telling him the planned trip had been cancelled.
Barrister Donal Lunny KC, acting for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), put to Mr Young that if Noah had left his home and the Wifi there by that time, and not having a data plan on his phone, he likely did not receive that message on Instagram.
Mr Young said: “That’s possible.”
Fiona Donohoe, Noah’s mother, has been attending the long-running inquest (PA)
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Malachy McGowan, acting for Noah’s mother Fiona Donohoe, referred to the last Google search being for Cavehill, and asked whether there anything to indicate Noah had been planning to go anywhere else.
Mr Young responded: “No, there is nothing, nothing other than Cavehill that would give an indication as to where he was going.”
The inquest on Thursday also heard about analysis of calls to and from Noah’s mobile phone.
All but one of the 28 calls had been to and from his mother.
One call at 10.30pm on Saturday June 20 appeared to have come from Noah’s own number, and lasted for 32 seconds.
Mr Lunny asked Mr Young whether it was possible to call yourself.
He responded: “You can certainly call your own number, but I wouldn’t have expected a 32-second log of it.”
Pressed for a likely explanation, Mr Young said he had consulted colleagues and none could say why the call was logged like that, adding: “I can’t explain it, no.”
There was also discussion about activity on Noah’s Google account after he had gone missing, at 6.06am on Monday June 22.
The inquest heard the IP address for the activity had been linked to Ms Donohoe’s home address.
Mr McGowan later said he wanted to clarify that Ms Donohoe had been asked by police to access Noah’s account amid the search efforts.
Evidence was later heard around the image of what appears to be a hand captured on Noah’s phone at 6.50pm on June 21, after he had last been seen.
Detective Inspector Cunningham, from the PSNI’s cyber unit, said there had been no location data for the photograph being taken on the Alcatel phone which was later found by a member of the public.
He told the inquest the photo had been considered in terms of being able to be matched forensically, but that the quality of the image had been too low for this.
Meanwhile, a number of statements were read to the inquest from police officers who had been involved in the finding of Noah’s body.
Constable O’Connor, who is part of the PSNI’s search and rescue team, detailed being tasked to the area where trains are washed beside the M2 motorway, and wearing a dry suit to enter a storm drain tunnel on June 27, while colleagues entered from another manhole.
He said one of them “almost immediately” shouted that they had found a body of a male.
A statement from Constable Woods recalls entering the storm drain that morning, and recounts spotting a body around 20 feet away, before moving closer and confirming a body lying face down in the water.
Noah’s body was removed and taken to the forensic mortuary at the Royal Victoria Hospital.
The inquest also heard a statement from Mr Byrne’s former staff officer, Sergeant Johnston, who recorded the then chief constable had visited officers involved in the search for Noah at Musgrave police station and at the north Belfast Translink depot on June 25.
He noted that Mr Byrne’s focus had been the welfare of officers involved in the search.
While Mr Byrne had not been working on June 27, the day Noah’s body was found, he said Mr Byrne’s diary indicated that along with then Deputy Chief Constable Mark Hamilton, he had gone to Musgrave police station, the place where Noah had been found and the search and rescue base at Sprucefield.
The inquest will resume on Friday morning.
