need to know
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In June 2020, a 14-year-old boy was found naked and dead in a culvert in Northern Ireland.
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This week, an expert told an inquest into his death that it was likely he had entered a storm drain alive.
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Professor Caroline Roberts said: “The quadrant will fill with water relatively quickly
Nearly six years after a missing 14-year-old boy was found naked and dead in a storm in Northern Ireland, an expert says he may have entered space alive.
This week, Professor Caroline Roberts spoke at the inquest into Noah Donohoe’s death and revealed that the teenager had entered the culvert by squeezing through “vertical metal bars” before being found dead in June 2020, UK outlets BBC and The Independent reported.
“The bars of the grill are placed wide enough that a large child or even a small person could climb on purpose without undue effort,” Roberts said in her report, which was commissioned by the Coroner’s Service for Northern Ireland and submitted to Belfast Coroner’s Court, according to the Independent.
On June 21, 2020, Donohoe left his home in Belfast on his bicycle at around 5:40 pm local time and was reported missing. His body was found six days later, according to Ireland’s national public service broadcaster, Raidió Teilifis Eireann (RTÉ).
An autopsy has since revealed her cause of death as drowning, the outlet reported.
The layout of the storm drain was “relatively complex and for a stranger moving in the semi-darkness, it seems likely, in my opinion, to be distracted,” Roberts told the court, according to the BBC.
After visiting the site, the professor determined that the culvert likely experienced high tides after entering the 14-year-old drain system between 11:30 p.m. and midnight.
“This is about five or six hours after his last sighting, which would have given him enough time to make it hundreds of meters along the culvert,” she told the court, according to The Independent.
“At this point, the water may have risen almost completely to fill the culvert around and immediately above the point where the boy’s body was found, creating a drowning situation,” Roberts said.
According to the outlet, “the quadrangle will be filled with water relatively quickly,” the expert continued, “and in the dark with the complex network of pipes and cold conditions, the boy could have been confused, I think.”
Donohoe is likely to survive several tidal cycles, but the temperature of the storm drain “wouldn’t be compatible with a bare body in my opinion,” she told the court. independent Reported.
Roberts said it’s possible the teenager entered the storm drain on the afternoon of June 21, 2020, and crawled or walked about 2,000 feet before drowning, outlets reported.
Other experts also spoke about whether screens should be installed, according to the reports. Dr Mark Cooper told the hearing, “The decision not to put up a security screen in this case is significant,” the BBC reported.
Earlier this year, the boy’s mother, Fiona Donohoe, described the period between reporting Noah missing and finding his body as a “living nightmare” in video footage played in court. The Guardian.
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In the weeks leading up to his disappearance, she was also increasingly concerned about his mental health.
“I miss every detail of my beautiful darling Noah,” she said in the video, according to RTÉ.
Read the original article on People
