Search commander: Questions remain over Noah Donohoe disappearance

The Community Rescue Service commander, who was in charge of the search for Noah Donohoe in June 2020, says his mother’s search for answers will continue.

On Tuesday, the jury at the inquest into the schoolboy’s death found the Department for Infrastructure failed to identify a hazard at a water tunnel in which Noah was found dead, and that there was no warning sign.

They also found that neither the department or the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) contributed in any way to Noah’s death. However, they did list 13 failings by police during the investigation.

Sean McCarry, who gave evidence at the inquest, has said it was detailed, but said some questions still remain.

“It took six days to find Noah. It took six years to get the inquest and it took nine months for a jury to reach its conclusions. That’s a process that has to be done,” McCarry told BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme.

“We’re never going to get, and it’s a difficult thing, we’re never going to get all of the answers we want to get but there are some things that have definitely been answered,” he said.

“It was a very detailed inquest with lots of things that I’m sure helped many people and I’m sure will help many people in the future … but it does not bring Fiona’s search to an end.”

McCarry said that during the search, he got to know a lot about Noah, adding that “he would just have been anybody’s favourite perfect child”.

“Whenever you have someone so perfect and something imperfect like this happens it’s so difficult to understand and explain it,” McCarry said.

“It’s touched every single life, I would have to say every single person across all of Northern Ireland and Ireland and wider afield.”