Three Men Acquitted in Murder Trial of Journalist Shot During Northern Ireland Protest stops

London – Three men were found not guilty of murder Friday in the killing of Belfast journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot by a member of a dissident IRA splinter group while covering a 2019 riot in Northern Ireland.

Justice Patricia Smyth delivered the not‑guilty verdicts after a non‑jury trial at Belfast Crown Court that had been held intermittently over the past two years.

McKee, 29, was shot while standing near police officers who were observing an anti‑police riot in Londonderry (Derry) on 18 April 2019. Protesters had thrown fire‑bombs at police and set a car ablaze before four shots rang out, one of which struck McKee.

The New IRA, a small paramilitary group that opposes Northern Ireland’s peace process, said its members unintentionally fired at the reporter while aiming for police.

McKee had written about the challenges faced by the generation of “cease‑fire babies,” raised after the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that ended three decades of sectarian violence. She was emerging as a leading voice chronicling the legacy of the years of paramilitary violence carried out by Irish nationalists and supporters of remaining part of the U.K.

Prime ministers of Britain and Ireland, along with political leaders from both Protestant and Catholic communities in Northern Ireland, attended her funeral, and her death helped revive the collapsed power‑sharing government.

While no one was ever charged with pulling the trigger, three other men – Paul McIntyre (58), Peter Cavanagh (37), and Jordan Gareth Devine (25) – had been charged with murder as accomplices for encouraging or assisting the shooter.

Defense counsel argued that the circumstantial evidence was insufficient to secure a conviction.

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