Topic Lifecycle: Dormant
This topic is currently dormant in the news cycle. It was last covered on Friday 3 July 2026 and has not appeared in recent broadcasts.
Coverage trend (last 30 days)
How much coverage this topic got from each channel over the past month.
What was reported
A plain summary of this topic, built from the channels that covered it.
Three men, Paul McIntyre, Peter Kavanagh, and Jordan Devine, were found not guilty of the murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Belfast Crown Court. McKee was killed in April 2019 while observing a riot in the Creggan area of Derry. The gunman, who was caught on camera, has never been identified. The dissident republican group the New IRA claimed responsibility, stating the killing was accidental while targeting police. The trial, which lasted nearly two years, was a non-jury trial. The three men were charged with joint enterprise murder, accused of encouraging or assisting the gunman, not of firing the shot. The prosecution argued the violence that night was orchestrated as a propaganda opportunity. Of 52 charges against nine defendants, four resulted in convictions. McKee's family expressed shock and disappointment, stating the system had failed her. The judge described the murder as an act of senseless violence. McKee was an award-winning investigative journalist and LGBT campaigner. Her funeral was attended by the UK and Irish premiers, and a priest rebuked political leaders for their lack of cooperation. The case remains unsolved as to who fired the fatal shot.
Key Claims by Channel
| Claim | Channel 5 | BBC One |
|---|---|---|
| Three men were found not guilty of Lyra McKee's murder. | ||
| The gunman who fired the fatal shot has never been identified. | ||
| The New IRA claimed responsibility for the killing. | ||
| The trial was a non-jury trial and lasted nearly two years. | ||
| The three men were charged with joint enterprise murder, accused of encouraging or assisting the gunman. | ||
| The prosecution claimed the violence was orchestrated as a propaganda opportunity for an MTV documentary crew. | · | |
| Of 52 charges against nine defendants, four resulted in convictions. | · | |
| The pistol used to kill McKee was found in 2020, and Niall Sheeran was jailed for possessing it in 2022. | · | |
| The judge described the murder as an act of senseless violence. | · | |
| McKee's sister said the verdict was a shock and that the system had failed her family. | ||
| The funeral was attended by then UK Prime Minister Theresa May and Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar. | ||
| A priest at the funeral rebuked Northern Ireland's political leaders for displaying unity while refusing to work together at Stormont. | · | |
| Six other men from Derry were charged with rioting and throwing petrol bombs. |
This is a cross-channel consensus summary, not an objective account. Consensus can be uniformly wrong, or omit what only one channel covered.
Timeline
Where this topic appeared. Cells show coverage time and are darker when there was more coverage.