McKee was killed while covering clashes between Republicans and police in 2019. Judge Patricia Smyth said evidence was insufficient for a conviction, while McKee’s family expressed disappointment.
Three men were acquitted on Friday of the 2019 killing of Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee.
McKee, 29, was killed while reporting on clashes between police and the New IRA, a splinter group of the Irish Republican Army. The clashes occurred in Londonderry, also known as Derry.
The prime ministers of Britain and Ireland and political leaders from Northern Ireland’s Protestant and Catholic communities attended her funeral. As a result of her death, politicians revived Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government, which had collapsed in 2017.
What do we know about the verdict?
Justice Patricia Smyth of the Belfast Crown Court said the verdict would not bring “little if any comfort or relief” to McKee’s family, but said circumstantial evidence was not sufficient to merit a conviction.
“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.”
The three men were charged as accomplices to the murder. They all pleaded not guilty and none testified.
The New IRA opposes the Irish peace process and seeks an end to British control over Northern Ireland. The New IRA said that one of its members had shot McKee and the group apologized to her family, saying she was unintentionally shot because she was near police.
McKee’s sister: N. Ireland justice system ‘failed’ her family
McKee’s sister Nichola Corner said after the verdict that the justice system had “completely failed” her family.
“Today has come as a complete and utter shock to us as a family,” Corner said outside the court. She said 150 people had potentially witnessed her sister’s death and said a “culture of silence needs to stop in Northern Ireland.”
The National Union of Journalists, of which McKee was a member, and Reporters Without Borders expressed their sympathy with McKee’s family and friends.
“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.”
Edited by: Sean Sinico
DW News
