This is the photo that Noah Donohoe’s mother claims can prove his mobile phone was in someone else’s hands after the Belfast teenager went missing.
The image was shared on social media by Ms Donohoe on Tuesday, and was raised at Wednesday’s inquest hearing into the death of the 14-year-old, whose body was found in a storm drain in north Belfast six days days after he went missing in June 2020.
It appears to show a hand in front of the camera lens, and a barrister for Ms Donohoe told the coroner’s court that the image raised the prospect the phone had been in the possession of someone else.
In her post to social media accompanying the image, Ms Donohoe said forensic analysis had been carried out on the phone.
She said she believes the image to have been taken after Noah was seen cycling naked on CCTV, when he would not have been in possession of the device.
“Our Forensic expert was able to show in his report that nearly an hour after Noah was last viewed naked someone had Noah’s phone and somehow took a photo of their hand on Noah’s phone,” she wrote.
She said police had been in possession of the device after it was recovered, but added: “Nothing of interest from the PSNI’s perspective was found in Noah’s phone.”
At the inquest hearing, barrister Brenda Campbell KC said the matter of the image and the time it is believed to have been taken, required “urgent responses” from the PSNI.