A CROWD FUNDRAISER to finance an investigative documentary on the death of Belfast teen Noah Donohoe has surpassed its goal of £150,000 (€175,000) in just four weeks.
The project, which is spearheaded by journalist Donal MacIntyre, began six months after the 14-year-old was found dead in a storm drain in north Belfast in the summer of 2020.
A post-mortem at the time determined that Noah died as a result of drowning. The inquest into his death has not yet taken place.
MacIntyre said that the film will bring together a group of “independent experts” who will look back at the investigation into Noah’s death.
“I was contacted by Noah’s family and asked to put together a team of independent experts who would come here to Belfast and try and analyse and … search for the truth of the Noah Donohoe story,” he said.
Macintyre added that the funds (which currently stand at just over £157,000 in total) will be used to pursue “unexplored lines of inquiry” and to commission further forensic reports, as well as completing a reconstruction of Noah’s movements.
The team also intends to reconstruct a storm drain with similar proportions to the one the teen was found in.
“This will allow us to test a number of theories about how he entered the drain and traversed over 900m of dark and difficult terrain,” Macintyre said.
Macintyre said he has already commenced work on the project alongside former murder detectives, psychologists, medical examiners and CCTV experts.
The group includes Andy Crocker, formerly of the UK’s Serious Crime Unit, and former DI Clive Driscoll, who was involved in the investigation into the Stephen Lawrence case.
Macintyre said he appealed to the public for additional funding for the documentary at the behest of Fiona Donohoe, Noah’s mother, who is keen to see the project completed.
He also said that excess funds will be donated to children’s charities in Northern Ireland including the Noah Donohoe investigation.
“We may never uncover the complete story, but we all agree that this beautiful spirit and unbelievably talented young boy deserves a proper and transparent investigation,” MacIntyre wrote on the project’s fundraiser page.
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