“Once you go beyond the first 10/15/20 metres of the culvert, it’s black. It’s not like black like night, where you can see in your bedroom; you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face”
A witness has told the Noah Donohoe inquest that there was “complete and utter darkness” in the tunnel system where the schoolboy’s body was found.
Owen McGivern, an official from the Department for Infrastructure Rivers, was also questioned at Belfast Coroner’s Court about access to the culvert system from the rear of houses in a north Belfast estate.
The inquest into the death of the schoolboy at Belfast Coroner’s Court, which is being heard with a jury, is now into its sixth week.
Noah, a pupil at St Malachy’s College, was 14 when his naked body was found in a storm drain tunnel in north Belfast in June 2020, six days after leaving home on his bike to meet two friends in the Cavehill area of the city.
A post-mortem examination found the cause of death was drowning.
Mr McGivern was questioned on Tuesday by Donal Lunny KC, who represents the PSNI at the inquest, about lighting in the tunnels.
He told the court: “Once you go beyond the first 10/15/20 metres of the culvert, it’s black. It’s not like black like night, where you can see in your bedroom; you couldn’t see your hand in front of your face.
“It is complete and utter darkness.”
The witness was then asked about the risks associated with gas in the culvert system.
He said gas within the tunnels would only arise when it was “agitated”.
He said: “I’ve been in it several times and the gas alarms never went off.”
Mr Lunny asked Mr McGivern about desilting work which had begun in the tunnel network before Noah disappeared, but the work had had to be stopped.
Mr McGivern said: “There were a couple of factors, Covid was a big factor.
“But before that we took the material away, the material was identified as contaminated so we then had to deal with getting rid of contaminated material and then Covid happened so we had to pause and then unfortunately Noah happened.”
Malachy McGowan, representing Noah’s mother Fiona Donohoe, told the court that the jury had been on a site visit on Monday to the scene where Noah’s body had been found.
The barrister said the grill over the culvert, which had been in place in June 2020, was a debris screen, intended to prevent larger branches passing through, but wide enough to enable a person to pass through the bars.
The witness confirmed this.
Mr McGowan said the inquest had heard evidence from a number of local residents about whether they could access land near to the entry to the culvert system.
The witness said the department accepted some local residents could access the area from their back gardens.
Mr McGowan asked how the department would have known people could access the area.
Mr McGivern said the department would have known this from speaking to local residents.
He was asked if the department was aware that children would have visited the area.
The witness said: “I don’t know about that.”
The barrister pointed to media reports after Noah’s body was found, which showed a local parent raising concerns about her children being able to access the area of the culvert entrance.
He added: “Would you accept that the best and most appropriate way to identify the real risk of children playing at or near a culvert is to consult with local residents?”
Mr McGivern agreed.
The inquest continues.
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