All evidence heard in inquest into death of Noah Donohoe

The jury at the Noah Donohoe inquest has now heard all the evidence in the case.

The schoolboy disappeared and died in north Belfast six years ago and the inquest into his death opened almost five months ago.

Noah's body was found in an underground water tunnel six days after he disappeared while naked on 21 June 2020.

Some unspecified legal issues are now under consideration at the inquest, and these matters must be resolved before the hearing can move towards a conclusion.

The coroner, Mr Justice Rooney, said on Monday: "We literally are in the final stages".

The final evidence in the case was presented to the jury by way of written statements during a brief sitting of the inquest on Monday morning.

New evidence was presented from three members of a family who previously told the inquest that they were not responsible for the memorialisation of Noah Donohoe's Instagram account a day after his body was found in June 2020.

It meant that Noah's mother, Fiona, was unable to gain access to her son's account following his death.

It included an incorrect number and ended in '.con' instead of '.com'.

During Monday's hearing, it emerged that the family's email account was also used around the same time to memorialise the Instagram account of another person who died some months before Noah.

In new written statements to the inquest, a mother, son and daughter all said they were unaware that their family account had been used to memorialise a second person's Instagram account.

The family members told the inquest they did not know the other person, whose Instagram account was closed through their family email.

They also confirmed they did not make any such request to Meta.

The mother said; "I am baffled by this".

The jury in the case is on stand-by to return to the hearing on Tuesday, pending the outcome of the ongoing legal discourse.