{"id":236476,"date":"2026-01-09T18:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T18:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/236476\/"},"modified":"2026-01-09T18:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T18:45:08","slug":"social-media-warning-ahead-of-inquest-into-death-of-belfast-boy-noah-donohoe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/236476\/","title":{"rendered":"Social media warning ahead of inquest into death of Belfast boy Noah Donohoe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A judge has warned about potentially serious consequences over any speculative social media posts ahead of an inquest into the death of Belfast boy Noah Donohoe.<\/p>\n<p>The 14-year-old was found dead in a storm drain in north Belfast in June 2020, six days after he went missing as he cycled to meet friends<\/p>\n<p>Mr Justice Rooney, who is the coroner in the case, was speaking ahead of the start of the inquest, which will be heard by a jury, on January 19th.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"400\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/social-media-warning-ahead-of-inquest-into-death-of-belfast-boy-noah-donohoe.jpg\" alt=\"Noah Donohoe missing\" data-title=\"Noah Donohoe missing\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Archive\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Archive\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Niall Carson\" data-usage-terms=\"\"\/>The boy went missing in summer 2020. Photo: Niall Carson\/PA.<\/p>\n<p>The case has attracted high levels of public interest, following a large-scale search to find Noah, over the unexplained nature of his death.<\/p>\n<p>Noah\u2019s mother, Fiona Donohoe, is hoping the coroner\u2019s case will provide answers to some of the outstanding questions surrounding the death of her son, who was a pupil at St Malachy\u2019s College in Belfast.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Justice Rooney read out what he termed a social media warning during a preliminary hearing in Belfast\u2019s Royal Courts of Justice on Friday.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"427\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767984308_497_social-media-warning-ahead-of-inquest-into-death-of-belfast-boy-noah-donohoe.jpg\" alt=\"Noah Donohoe inquest\" data-title=\"Noah Donohoe inquest\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Wire\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Wire\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Liam McBurney\" data-usage-terms=\"\"\/>The Royal Courts of Justice in Belfast, where a preliminary hearing in the Noah Donohoe inquest took place. Photo: PA.<\/p>\n<p>He said no-one should engage in any social media activity which may potentially prejudice the inquest, warning of serious consequences for the progress of the inquest, and for the person responsible for the posts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been at pains to emphasise the importance and risks of social media posts about the inquest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome PIPs (properly interested parties) have raised issues about recent social media posts, and they may \u2026 require to be explored in some more detail in due course.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"427\" width=\"640\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767984308_967_social-media-warning-ahead-of-inquest-into-death-of-belfast-boy-noah-donohoe.jpg\" alt=\"Fiona Donohoe\" data-title=\"Noah Donohoe inquest\" data-copyright-holder=\"PA Archive\" data-copyright-notice=\"PA Archive\/PA Images\" data-credit=\"Liam McBurney\" data-usage-terms=\"\"\/>Fiona Donohoe hopes the case will provide answers (Liam McBurney\/PA)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever it bears repeating that no-one, whether involved in the inquest, or in the general public, should engage in any social media activity which might prejudice the inquest process, particularly given the proximity of the inquest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe consequences of such activity could be serious, not only for the progress of the inquest, but also for any person engaged in inappropriate social media activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A number of outstanding issues and updates in relation to the case were also heard on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>However work is being focused on the inquest starting as scheduled on Monday January 19.<\/p>\n<p>Further review hearings have been planned to take place next Thursday and Friday, January 15-16.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A judge has warned about potentially serious consequences over any speculative social media posts ahead of an inquest&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-236476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}