Three men acquitted of murder of journalist Lyra McKee

Three men have been acquitted of murder in the 2019 killing of journalist Lyra McKee in Northern Ireland. The verdicts were delivered by Justice Patricia Smyth on Friday, July 3, 2026, at Belfast Crown Court following a lengthy non-jury trial.

Paul McIntyre, 58, Peter Cavanagh, 38, and Jordan Gareth Devine, 25, were found not guilty of murder under a joint enterprise charge. The prosecution had alleged they accompanied and assisted a lone, masked gunman who fired the fatal shot during an anti-police riot in the Creggan area of Londonderry, also known as Derry, on April 18, 2019. The men denied the charges and chose not to give evidence during the trial.

McKee, a 29-year-old author and journalist, was fatally shot while standing near police vehicles observing the disturbances. She was rushed to a hospital but died shortly after. The New IRA, a dissident republican paramilitary group, claimed responsibility for her death, stating its members had been aiming at police.

The trial, which opened in May 2024 and concluded this past April, was one of the longest in recent Northern Irish history. The prosecution's case relied partly on footage from an MTV crew that was in Derry that day,...