Three acquitted of 2019 murder of N.Irish journalist Lyra McKee

Three men were on Friday found not guilty of murdering Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee six years ago, in a high-profile killing that attracted global attention.

The trio were acquitted by a judge at Belfast Crown Court following a non-jury trial that did not sit continuously and lasted over two years due to its legal complexity.

McKee, 29, was shot in the head while covering a clash between dissident republicans and police in Northern Ireland's second city Londonderry in April 2019.

The city is known as Derry to republicans, who want union with the Irish republic instead of Northern Ireland being part of the United Kingdom. 

Her death provoked widespread public grief and anger over the continued activity of paramilitary groups, which plagued the province during three decades of sectarian violence known as the Troubles.

The violence largely ended with the signing of peace accords in 1998. 

The New IRA, a dissident republican splinter group, claimed responsibility for McKee's death, and apologised to her relatives, saying that she was hit unintentionally because she was alongside the police.

Peter Cavanagh, 37, Jordan Gareth Devine, 25, and Paul McIntyre, 58, faced a joint enterprise murder charge, which applies when prosecutors allege multiple people were involved in a fatal attack.

However, they did not accuse any of the defendants of firing the deadly shot.

- 'Orchestrated disorder' -

When the not-guilty verdicts were read out, the trio made little or no reaction, according to BBC News.

Speaking outside court, McKee's sister Nichola Corner said the justice system had "completely failed" her family.

"Today has come as a complete and utter shock to us as a family," she said.

"People are afraid to speak out, they are afraid to tell the truth, they are afraid to share information that they have," she added, noting over 150 people potentially witnessed her sister's death in April 2019.

"That culture of silence needs to stop in Northern Ireland, it is unfair to victims."

Prosecutors had claimed the three defendants led a lone gunman to the firing point during the "culmination of orchestrated disorder".

McKee was standing near police vehicles, which were in the area due to searches being conducted at a nearby address, when four gunshots were fired in their direction. 

The gunman was "intentionally encouraged or assisted" by the accused, prosecutors had claimed.

The murder weapon was found in June 2020. 

During the non-jury trial which began in May 2024, the court watched footage recovered from a production company that was making a documentary about Saoradh, a group seen by Northern Irish police as the political wing of the New IRA.

The court was told that the company's crew left the riot scene shortly before the shots were fired.

Defence lawyers had argued the prosecution's case, which relied on the video footage as well as clothing identification, was "wholly circumstantial".

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© Agence France-Presse