Inquest hears mysterious photo would not have helped find Noah

A mysterious photo on Noah Donohoe's phone would not have helped to find him, an inquest has heard.

Noah disappeared in north Belfast in June 2020 and his body was found in an underground water tunnel six days later.

A close-up image, showing what appeared to be part of a hand, was found on the schoolboy's mobile phone when it was examined by police.

It was the last photo taken on his phone and the image was captured when Noah was no longer in possession of the device.

The last reported sighting of the 14-year-old was at Northwood Road and he was naked at the time.

It has already been established that he had parted company with his phone before he disappeared at around 18:00 GMT on 21 June 2021.

The unexplained image on his device was taken at 18:50, almost an hour later.

The inquest has been trying to establish who might have been in possession of the device at the time.

The phone was found in a playpark along the route of his final bicycle ride to Northwood Road.

Mark Wilson, who is a former Criminal Investigation Department (CID) detective with the PSNI, analysed the phone in his role as a digital media investigator with the police.

He told the inquest today that nothing on the image could indicate where the photograph was taken, who it was taken by, or who's partial hand was shown.

"I do not consider it would have assisted in locating Noah," Wilson said.

He added that the photo contained "absolutely nothing at all" to assist efforts to find out where it was taken or to establish the identity of the person whose hand was captured.

In the absence of any additional information, a mystery remains about how the image was taken on Noah's device after he parted company with it.

The witness also indicated to the inquest that the focus of his role in the investigation was to try to find any information that would help to locate Noah's whereabouts, as opposed to investigating a crime, in the days after his disappearance.

"That is by far the major priority, finding Noah and finding him alive," he said.

He explained that his role was to interrogate Noah's social media and phone call activity and any other interactions on his devices.

During questioning about the police investigation into Noah's disappearance and a suggestion from a lawyer that the possibility of "third party" involvement should have been a "starting point", the witness responded: "No, I disagree with that."

The former detective was adamant that the priority in such situations is to find the missing person followed by an "open mind" about any other potential factors in the case.

"The number one priority was to find him," he stressed.