52. The steep drop
5/11/202611 min
A special series from The State of Us podcast. In the summer of 2020, 14-year-old Noah Donohoe went missing in Belfast. Six days later his body was found in a storm drain. His disappearance and death have dominated headlines for five and a half years. The inquest into his death will, for the first time, lay out the facts and evidence in this case. In this special series from The State of Us podcast, Tara Mills and Declan Harvey take you inside the courtroom, bringing you the evidence as it unfolds each day. An expert says the steep gradient of part of the storm drain added to its danger.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsTara Mills· Host0:00
There were more snippy exchanges today between the barrister for the Department of Infrastructure and one of the expert witnesses.
Declan Harvey· Host0:06
Yes, I was in court, and we heard just how steep the gradient is within the tunnel at Northwood Road.
Tara Mills· Host0:12
Welcome back to this special series of The State of Us podcast. This is the Noah Donohoe Inquest.
Declan Harvey· Host0:17
[upbeat music] Hello, Declan Arvey.
Tara Mills· Host0:22
Hello, Tar Mills. Uh, we were, um, expecting to hear more from Jonathan McKee today. He's the senior official at the Department of Infrastructure. Dare I ask, did that happen?
Declan Harvey· Host0:33
No, we didn't, but there was a very good reason for that. He was supposed to give evidence on Thursday and Friday, which he did, and then we expected he would give evidence today, but the diaries all clashed, so we had two expert witnesses about the culverts, about the same topic back in court today, one of them online, Dr. Mark Cooper, who's the health and safety expert, and, um, Brian Pope, who is an, an engineer with many years' experience. So they were back in today, and actually, we ended up having a short day because one of the jurors had an appointment this afternoon.
Tara Mills· Host1:03
Okay. Um, so those witnesses presumably then bring us back into these arguments about whether the entrance to the culvert at Northwood Road should have had the thinner security screen on it with those m- more narrow bars that would stop people passing through. I mean, that is clearly such a key part of the entire story, and we can imagine it's