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Pacemaker
Noah Donohoe was found dead in June 2020
A police officer who searched an underground tunnel for Noah Donohoe became emotional at the inquest today when he considered the conditions the schoolboy would have encountered after he disappeared five and a half years ago.
The 14-year-old schoolboy's body was found in a tunnel in north Belfast almost a week after he went missing in June 2020.
A former PSNI Inspector, Philip Menary, was part of a hazardous environment police team involved in the underground search.
Giving evidence at the inquest about the conditions he encountered as he made his way along the tunnel towards a point close to the Seaview football pitch, the witness said it is "heartbreaking" to consider what Noah experienced.
He described the "complete blackness' his team encountered, amidst debris including branches and boulders and other obstructions in washing water.
Menary described how it would be "exhausting" trying to "figure and feel" a way through the tunnel.
He explained how a person could be constantly tripping over debris and obstructions and at times having to go "on all fours" to try to get through the tunnel.
He said it would be "completely disorientating" and someone could stumble and fall with water "continually coming over you".
'A real sense of sadness'
The former policeman became emotional and paused momentarily at this point as he reflected on "young Noah".
"It's heartbreaking", he said.
He described as "horrendous" the tunnel conditions under the Seaview football pitch, which is downstream from where Noah was seen naked close to the entrance to a storm drain at Linear Park.
Describing the sludge and silt in the tunnel area where Noah's body was eventually found, close to the M2 motorway, he said it "just sucks your feet under" in "absolutely freezing" conditions.
Commenting on a photograph of the tunnel shown to the coroner, Mr Justice Rooney, and the jury, he said it was "completely pitch black".
He said his team experienced "a real sense of sadness" when Noah's body was found because they understood what he had gone through, and they knew "the steps" the schoolboy had taken.
He said they thought about Noah being alone and naked in the dark.
