Family Denies Blocking Mother's Access to Noah's Instagram
A family has stated at an inquest that they were not responsible for preventing Fiona Donohoe, mother of Noah Donohoe, from accessing her son's Instagram account following his death.
A mother and her two children denied involvement in the memorialisation of Noah Donohoe's Instagram account, which occurred a day after his body was found in June 2020. This action resulted in the account being frozen and inaccessible to Noah's mother.
The inquest revealed that Fiona Donohoe was unaware of who submitted the memorialisation request to Meta at the time. The request was made without her consent and caused her significant anguish and distress.
Instagram defines memorialised profiles as a means to remember someone's life after they have died, and such profiles prevent anyone from logging in.
The coroner's court eventually obtained information from Meta, the operator of Instagram, regarding the email account used to request the memorialisation. This email was linked to the family who appeared at the inquest on Thursday.
The coroner, Mr Justice Rooney, granted anonymity to the mother and her two children. All three gave evidence individually behind a curtain, visible only to the coroner, jury, legal teams, and Fiona Donohoe.
'I was only a child'
One family member attending the inquest was a pupil at St Malachy's College in North Belfast, the same school Noah attended. The email address submitted by Meta to the inquest was slightly different from the family's actual email, containing an incorrect number and ending with ".con" instead of ".com".
A teenage boy, whose name was provided by Meta, testified that he was in a different school year than Noah and was too young at the time to understand the memorialisation process.
"Not at all,"
he replied when asked if he knew Noah. He stated he only recognized Noah after seeing his face on posters and had never interacted with him.
When questioned about the use of his name on the Instagram memorialisation request, he said he had
"no idea"it happened until recently becoming aware of it. He also confirmed he never discussed Noah's death with anyone.
The teenager explained that he and his sister used the family email for social media and gaming accounts, adding,
"I was only a child."
He further stated that if he knew who made the request,
"I promise I would say."
Follower Requests to Noah's Instagram Account
The boy's sister, also in her late teens, testified that she never contacted Meta and did not know Noah prior to his disappearance. She became aware of him only through media coverage surrounding his disappearance.
She stated she made a follower request to Noah's Instagram account after his disappearance, and the inquest heard that hundreds of others made similar requests at the time.
She explained that she made the request because she was around the same age as Noah and wanted to
"keep updated"about his case and share any information that might aid in the search.
She said she was unaware of the memorialisation request until the coroner's office contacted her family in February 2026. She described the experience as,
"I can't even describe how shocking it was."
She added,
"Anything our family can do, anything, we're here to help."
The witness also revealed that her Instagram account had been hacked previously and her brother's account had been hacked
"a few times."
When asked how she would respond if accused of requesting the memorialisation, she replied,
"It wasn't."
She also stated that if she or her brother had made the request to Meta at the time, she would inform the inquest.
'Locked Out' of Access to Important Information
The mother of the teenage children also gave evidence, confirming she had no prior dealings with or knowledge of Noah before his disappearance. After Noah went missing, she said she had been praying for him.
The woman became emotional while telling the inquest she
"didn't have any idea"about the memorialisation request made using her family's email address. She said her children
"were as surprised as I was"when they learned of the situation earlier in the year.
Mr Justice Rooney asked if Meta had contacted the family at the time to verify whether they made the memorialisation request. The inquest was informed by a barrister representing Fiona Donohoe about the impact of the memorialisation on Noah's mother, emphasizing how she was
"locked out"of access to important information regarding her son's life before his death.
