Overview
- The judge at Belfast Crown Court delivered not-guilty verdicts for Paul McIntyre, Peter Cavanagh and Jordan Gareth Devine after a non-jury trial concluded on Friday, July 3, 2026.
- The men had faced charges that they intentionally encouraged or assisted the masked gunman on a joint-enterprise basis, but the court found the prosecution evidence insufficient to prove those allegations.
- Lyra McKee, a 29-year-old journalist, was shot while watching disturbances on Fanad Drive in Derry on April 18, 2019 and died after being taken to Altnagelvin Hospital.
- Trial testimony described a masked shooter firing from the corner of Fanad Drive and Central Drive during chaotic rioting, and reporting from the day notes a television crew had filmed in the area earlier for an MTV documentary with the republican group Saoradh.
- The verdict leaves criminal responsibility for the killing unsettled, highlights the difficulty of proving individual guilt in disorderly scenes, and renews questions about journalist safety and the limits of investigations into dissident republican violence.