Supporters of the family of Belfast schoolboy Noah Donohoe gathered at police headquarters on Friday to protest over the PSNI’s attempt to secure an injunction on sensitive material in his inquest proceedings.
Noah's mother Fiona and aunt Niamh were joined by a large crowd outside the PSNI base in East Belfast.
Noah, a 14-year-old pupil at St Malachy’s College, was found dead in a storm drain in North Belfast in June 2020, six days after he went missing.
Many of those gathered were holding blue balloons in memory of Noah while others carried pictures of the teenager and placards opposing the PSNI bid to secure a Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificate.
Cars passing the protest also beeped their horns in support of Fiona, her family, and of course Noah.
Fiona Donohoe is hoping to secure answers to some of the questions surrounding her son's death through the inquest process and launched a petition last week against the use of PII certificates in the case of Noah.
The petition, signed by more than 288,000 people including celebrities Eamonn Holmes, singer Imelda May, presenter Alison Hammond, actress Bronagh Waugh among many others, was handed over to Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton at the event before the crowd dispersed peacefully while police looked on.
Thousands of people have also been tweeting the Chief Constable Simon Byrne to ask for the files to be made public.
Police have stated from the outset that they believe there was no foul play in the cause of Noah's death.
PII certificates are usually sought by police seeking to withhold evidence they consider would be damaging to public interest.
A PII application by the police needs the prior approval of Mr Byrne and the government.
The relevant material will be circulated to the parties in the inquest in redacted form before a hearing at which the coroner will take submissions on whether he should grant the immunity status.
The inquest into Noah's death was originally scheduled to begin on January 10 this year.
That date was vacated in November due to various outstanding issues, including with the disclosure process and the ongoing Ombudsman’s probe.
At a recent pre-inquest review hearing before coroner Joe McCrisken, a lawyer representing the police insisted a PII application is not an unusual occurrence and is a common feature of many inquests.
But Fiona has said that if she does not get all the information, she will never find out the truth of what happened to her son.
Speaking to Belfast Live, Fiona said: "We need to know everything about what happened to Noah. You would want to if it was your own child and all of the people here today realise that it could be their child.
"It could be four files or one sentence but whatever it says we need to know and we want to see it. We won't give up and will try everything to stop this PII request."
Noah's aunt Niamh added: "No other family can go through this so that's why we need to get justice for Noah. It's so wrong and whatever is in those files we need to see. We have all these people here today behind us and it's all for Noah."
In a statement afterwards, ACC Singleton said: "The police service has deep and sincere sympathy with the Donohoe family for the unimaginable pain of their loss.
"I accepted copies of a petition today (February 25) and assured Fiona that we remain fully committed to finding answers for the Donohoe family.
"The disappearance and death of Noah Donohoe is subject to an ongoing coronial investigation.
"The Police Service continue to investigate under their Police (NI) Act 2000 duty, but also provide assistance to the coroner, so it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time."
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