The coroner in the inquest into the death of Belfast teenager Noah Donohoe is due to begin his charge to the jury on Thursday.

Mr Justice Rooney will address the ten-member panel as the long-running hearing enters its final phase. He told the court on Wednesday that the charge could occupy most of the day and that completing it in a single day was "probably unlikely". He stressed the need to bring proceedings to a close, noting that time was running out after five months of evidence.

Noah Donohoe, 14, disappeared on 21 June 2020 after cycling from his home in the Lower Ormeau Road area of south Belfast. He was last seen on Northwood Road in north Belfast, near waste ground containing an entrance to an underground drainage culvert. At that point he was naked and had abandoned his bicycle. His body was located six days later more than 600 metres downstream inside the tunnel network. The inquest has heard that there is no evidence anyone else was involved in the boy’s disappearance and death.

The hearings have examined the maintenance of the culvert, which falls under the responsibility of Stormont’s Department for Infrastructure, and the police investigation into the disappearance. Earlier in the inquest, the jury viewed CCTV footage showing Noah leaving his home in the early hours of 21 June, walking barefoot along nearby streets, and returning about an hour later without the flip-flops and headphones he had been wearing. His mother, Fiona Donohoe, had alerted police four hours after he left the family home that evening, telling them she was concerned about his mental health in the days beforehand.

The jury of eight men and two women will deliberate following the coroner’s summing up. Mr Justice Rooney said on Wednesday that the inquest needed to be finished and that the charge would commence without further delay.