Witness says someone tried to enter home night of Noah's disappearance

A witness has told the Noah Donohoe inquest that she heard someone trying her back door handle in the early hours of the morning after the schoolboy's disappearance.

Sandra Semple, who lived at Premier Drive in North Belfast, a short distance from where Noah was last seen at Northwood Road, said she was in bed watching television when she heard a noise at her door.

She said she heard the sound of "the handle being tried" at around 03:00 BST on Monday 22 June 2020.

The witness said she did not look to see who was there but knew it was around 03:00 because of the timing of a programme she had been watching on television while lying on a sofa in a downstairs living room at the back of her home.

The witness, who used a zimmer frame during her appearance at the inquest, said she did not ring the police and "hid under the blankets until the next morning".

She explained that she thought it was someone trying to break in to her home.

Responding to questions from a barrister for Noah's mother, the witness described the sound as "really, really loud and hard".

Semple said she initially thought she was hearing things, but the sound got louder and "freaked me out".

She also explained that she did not know Noah was missing at the time.

The body of the 14-year-old was found in a storm drain in north Belfast on 27 June 2020, six days after he went missing.

A post-mortem examination found his death was due to drowning.

Semple told the inquest that Premier Drive and her home back onto gardens which in turn back onto overgrown waste ground.

The witness explained that there were entrances to the area from Premier Drive as well as gaps and broken fences leading to the wasteland area.

She said she does not know if the waste ground leads to the culvert, linked to Noah's death.

A lawyer for the Department for Infrastructure explained to the inquest that a staff member discovered that it was "not possible" to walk from the culvert to Premier Drive.

Another witness, Jemma Mc Mullen from Northwood Parade, told the Inquest that she heard a single "high-pitched scream" in the early hours of the morning after Noah's disappearance in the area.

She said she was reading a book in bed at the time and the sound came "totally out of the blue" on a calm night.

Because it was a high-pitched sound, she "assumed it was a young person or a female".

She said it was loud enough for her to look out, but she could not see anyone.

Asked by a barrister for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) if it could have been the sound of an animal like a fox, the witness said she did not know because she is not familiar with the sound of a fox.

Later, she said she was "pretty confident" it was a scream.

Earlier in the day, the inquest was shown a photograph of trainers and a top worn by Noah Donohoe on the day of his disappearance.

Lauren Russell, a resident of Northwood Road in north Belfast, described to the coroner and jury how she noticed the clothing and footwear on the evening of the schoolboy's disappearance from the street.

The photograph showed a jacket strewn on top of a garden wall and trainers placed neatly side by side on the street.

The witness said it looked like "someone had placed them there".

Chris Morrow, another resident of Northwood Road, explained to the inquest that he noticed a bicycle on the edge of a driveway in Northwood Road on the evening of Noah's disappearance.

He also said he noticed a black helmet in the area the following day and alerted police officers who were searching in the area at the time.

When asked if he had seen Noah on the day of his disappearance, while the witness was visiting a relative close to where the schoolboy went missing, he replied: "I did not".

Morrow also described how he would have been concerned for his own children's safety if he had been aware a culvert in the area.

He said he knew there was an access point to a former play area, but he did not know what was in "behind those gates".

When he was asked if he would have wanted to know about the culvert, he said: "Very much so."

He said his children "would have been told not to play in that area".

He also described how he was aware of a "cut through" area, occasionally used by some local school children, through overgrown land between Premier Drive and the general Northwood Road area where Noah was last seen.

The inquest was shown CCTV footage from the street where Noah was last seen and there was a focus on identifying feet shown in the area close to the time of the boy's disappearance.

Morrow confirmed he believed two sets of feet shown on the CCTV footage belonged to himself and one of his daughters who were visiting a grandparent with their family at the time.

His wife, Lauren Morrow, also told the inquest about seeing the helmet and wondering "why was it sitting there?".

The inquest continues.