LONDON (AP) — Three men were acquitted of murder Friday in the 2019 killing of Belfast journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot by a member of a dissident Irish Republican Army splinter group while covering a riot in Northern Ireland.
Justice Patricia Smyth regretted that her verdict would bring “little if any comfort or relief” to McKee’s family, but said the circumstantial evidence was insufficient for a conviction after the nonjury trial held intermittently
over the past two years in Belfast Crown Court.
“Lyra McKee’s murder was an act of senseless violence," Smyth said. “The gunman has never been brought to the court and the evidence against those accused of assisting or encouraging has fallen short of that required for conviction."
McKee, 29, was shot while standing near law enforcement officers observing an anti-police riot in Londonderry, also known as Derry, on April 18, 2019. Protesters had tossed fire bombs at police and torched a car before four shots rang out and a bullet fired by a masked gunman struck McKee.
No one was ever charged with pulling the trigger, but three other men, Paul McIntyre, 58, Peter Cavanagh, 37, and Jordan Gareth Devine, 25, were charged with murder as accomplices for encouraging or assisting the shooter. The three denied the charges but none testified.
The New IRA, a small paramilitary group that opposes Northern Ireland’s peace process, said one of its members accidentally shot the reporter while aiming at police.
McKee wrote about the challenges faced by the generation of “ceasefire babies” raised after the 1998 Good Friday peace accord ended three decades of sectarian violence. She was becoming an influential voice chronicling the legacy of the years of paramilitary violence carried out by Irish nationalists and supporters of remaining part of the U.K.
The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland and political leaders from Northern Ireland’s Protestant and Catholic communities were among the hundreds who attended her funeral. Her death helped feuding politicians revive Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government, which had collapsed in 2017.
The judge found McKee was murdered by a gunman who acted with intent to kill or seriously injure police to “guarantee the oxygen of publicity” from the fiery riot.
McKee's sister said that the system had failed her family and vowed to relentlessly pursue justice. She railed against a culture of silence in Northern Ireland, saying that not one of the 150 people who witnessed the shooting spoke out.
“People are afraid to speak out, they are afraid to tell the truth, they are afraid to share information that they have,” Nichola Corner said. "That culture of silence needs to stop in Northern Ireland. It is unfair to victims and it completely allows people with blood on their hands to walk free.”
The National Union of Journalists, which McKee was a member of, and Reporters Without Borders expressed their sympathy with her family and friends and said they were concerned someone got away with the killing.
“The authorities must continue to pursue all legal avenues to establish accountability and ensure that those responsible for Lyra’s death are brought to justice,” Felicity Garvey of Reporters Without Borders said. "Journalists cannot work freely and safely if those who kill members of the press can do so with impunity.”
Six other men were also on trial for charges related to the riot, but not having a role in the killing. Four were acquitted of rioting while one, Christopher Gillen, 45, was convicted of riot and tossing fire bombs. Kieran McCool, 57, was convicted of assaulting a community worker.
