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The State of Us

63. Is key expert impartial?

5/29/202611 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. A key Department for Infrastructure witness was challenged by the Donohoe family’s barrister.

Clips

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Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

  1. Declan Harvey· Host0:00

    This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.

  2. Speaker 10:03

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  3. Declan Harvey· Host0:20

    [jingle] After Noah died, Northern Ireland's Minister for Infrastructure and the police were briefed about how safe the storm drain and its entrance had been.

  4. Tara Mills· Host0:32

    Officials at the department said the arrangements had been given a clean bill of health by a leading expert, and regulations had been followed.

  5. Declan Harvey· Host0:40

    But did they overplay to the minister and police just how clean that bill of health was? And how impartial was the independent expert used by the DFI? I was in court.

  6. Tara Mills· Host0:53

    This is a special series from the State of Us podcast. This is the Noah Donohoe Inquest.

  7. Declan Harvey· Host1:00

    [upbeat music] Hello, Tara Mills.

  8. Tara Mills· Host1:05

    Hello, Declan Harvey.

  9. Declan Harvey· Host1:06

    Uh, you're in our remote studio. I'm, uh, in the, uh, podcast studio in Belfast. And look, I think it's worth considering at this stage that every one of the pips at the inquest is aware that at the end of this process, the coroner will have the ability to make recommendations, and as part of that, there could be inherent criticisms. So it is very important to the barristers that they're

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