Three men accused of involvement in the murder of Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee have been acquitted by a Belfast court, leaving the case without a single conviction more than six years after her death. Paul McIntyre (58), Peter Cavanagh (38), and Jordan Gareth Devine (25) were found not guilty following a lengthy and complex trial that began in May 2024 and ran, with interruptions, for nearly two years — making it one of the longest criminal proceedings in Northern Ireland's recent history.

McKee, 29, was killed on 18 April 2019 in the Creggan neighbourhood of Derry — also known as Londonderry — a city in Northern Ireland's northwest, when she was struck by a bullet while filming clashes between rioters and police. She had been standing near a police vehicle when a masked gunman opened fire. The New IRA, a dissident republican paramilitary group opposed to the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that ended decades of sectarian conflict known as The Troubles, admitted that one of its members had fired the shot, stating it had been aimed at police. The riots took place against a backdrop of political tension surrounding the United Kingdom's then-unresolved departure from the European Union.

The three men on trial were not accused of firing the fatal shot, but of having accompanied the gunman to the scene and of encouraging or assisting him. The prosecution argued they bore criminal responsibility on those grounds, but the defence described the evidence as paper-thin and based on "pure speculation." The presiding judge agreed, acquitting all three. The trial was heard without a jury — an arrangement that, while unusual, is permitted in Northern Ireland for cases involving serious terrorist-related charges. In total, nine men faced 52 charges in connected proceedings, including riot-related offences; none was convicted on any count.

McKee had been widely regarded as one of the most promising journalists of her generation — a voice for those who had grown up in the relative peace brought by the Good Friday Agreement and someone who chronicled the lingering social wounds of The Troubles with empathy and clarity. Her death provoked deep grief across the United Kingdom and Ireland.

For her family, the verdict was devastating. Her sister, Nichola Corner, called it "a total shock" and said the system had "completely failed Lyra, our family, and Northern Ireland." She pointed to a culture of silence as a central obstacle to justice, noting that more than 150 people had witnessed the events of that night, yet not one had come forward to testify. The judge acknowledged at the close of proceedings that the verdict would offer little or no comfort to the family, expressing regret and noting that the gunman himself has still not been brought to justice. "Lyra McKee," she said, "was murdered in an act of senseless violence." The family vowed to continue pursuing every avenue available to achieve accountability.