Lyra McKee Murder Trial Ends With Acquittals as Family Demands Justice

One evening 7 years ago this chaos and rioting in Derry, Londonderry, was punctured by gunfire. The victim, Lyra McKee, a journalist reporting on the carnage all around. She took a bullet to the head. Police later recovered the firearm. The man who pulled this trigger has never been traced. For a nation craving answers, detectives were desperate to track who was behind it all. In a trial lasting 2 years, three men stood accused. Paul McIntyre, Peter Cavanagh, and Jordan Devine. Accused of murder by accompanying, encouraging, a masked gunman. But the judge here found them not guilty.

Today has come as a complete and utter shock to us as a family. That system has completely failed Lyra and has failed our family and has failed Northern Ireland. This is a devastating day for the family, Arthur, colleagues and friends of Lyra, and I think for journalists. This has been a long painful journey for Lyra's family who were upset as the judge delivered her ruling. Some even walked out in anger. The so-called new IRA previously claimed responsibility for this attack, a dissident Republican group whose supporters do not believe the landmark peace deal that put an end to Northern Ireland's decades-long

sectarian conflict. They apologized and said Lyra was never the intended target, but they used the 21st anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement to murder Lyra and trigger what police called a new breed of terrorist. The question now looms, will anyone ever be brought to justice for the murderous violence of that night? The witnesses who watched what unfolded were offered anonymity in a trial with no jury, an indication of the fear that still hangs in the air. People are afraid to speak out. They are afraid to tell the truth. They are afraid to share information that they have. Lyra McKee once wrote that her home country is a beautiful tragedy, strangled by the chains of its past and

its present. Her own death and this verdict today is a stark symbol of that struggle as the quest for answers enters a new chapter. Connor Gillis, Sky News in Belfast.