The United Kingdom Justice has decided this Friday to acquit three men who were being tried for the murder of Northern Irish journalist Lyra McKee, who died in April 2019 after being shot while observing riots in Derry, Northern Ireland, in an event that was subsequently claimed by the New IRA.
The defendants, identified as Peter Cavanagh, 38, Jordan Gareth Devine, 25, and Paul McIntyre, 58, faced a murder charge, although, according to information released by the television channel BBC, none of them would have been the one who directly fired the shots that ended the reporter's life.
Despite this, the Prosecution maintained that the three had played a key role by "accompanying the shooter to a point from which they had sufficient visibility to open fire during the night of the riots." According to the prosecutors, furthermore, they "urged him" to act.
The defense, for its part, has maintained since the beginning of the process that the entire accusation was based solely on "speculation" and that, consequently, the charges formulated against their clients lacked sufficient basis.
The New IRA, one of the few armed groups that reject the peace agreement in Northern Ireland, admitted shortly after the events that one of its members was the one who shot the journalist when he opened fire on police officers present in the area during the riots that McKee was covering as a witness. "During an attack on the enemy, Lyra McKee tragically died while standing next to enemy forces," the organization stated at the time.