BELFAST: The trial of three men accused of murdering a Northern Irish journalist five years ago opened in Belfast on Thursday, with the court viewing documentary footage.
Lyra McKee was shot in the head as dissident republicans clashed with police in Northern Ireland’s second city Londonderry in April 2019.
The city is known as Derry to republicans, who want union with the Irish republic instead of Northern Ireland being part of the United Kingdom.
The New IRA, a dissident republican splinter group, claimed responsibility for her death, which provoked public grief and outcry over the continued activity of paramilitary groups in the province.
The defendants Peter Cavanagh, 35, Jordan Gareth Devine, 23, and Paul McIntyre, 56, are charged with murder as well as possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent, and possession and throwing of a petrol bomb.
McIntyre is also charged with membership of a proscribed organisation.
According to prosecutor David McDowell, the three accused led a lone gunman to the firing point during the “culmination of orchestrated disorder”.
McKee was standing near police Land Rovers, which were in the area due to searches being conducted at a nearby address, when four gunshots were fired in the direction of the police vehicles, he added.
The gunman was “intentionally encouraged or assisted” by the accused, he told the judge presiding over the non-jury trial at Belfast Crown Court.
The murder weapon was found in June 2020.
The court also watched footage recovered from a production company that was making a documentary about Saoradh, a group seen by Northern Irish police as the political wing of the New IRA.
The court was told that the company’s crew left the riot scene in Derry/Londonderry shortly before the shots were fired.
Lyra McKee was shot in the head as dissident republicans clashed with police in Northern Ireland’s second city Londonderry in April 2019.
The city is known as Derry to republicans, who want union with the Irish republic instead of Northern Ireland being part of the United Kingdom.
The New IRA, a dissident republican splinter group, claimed responsibility for her death, which provoked public grief and outcry over the continued activity of paramilitary groups in the province.
The defendants Peter Cavanagh, 35, Jordan Gareth Devine, 23, and Paul McIntyre, 56, are charged with murder as well as possession of a firearm and ammunition with intent, and possession and throwing of a petrol bomb.
McIntyre is also charged with membership of a proscribed organisation.
According to prosecutor David McDowell, the three accused led a lone gunman to the firing point during the “culmination of orchestrated disorder”.
McKee was standing near police Land Rovers, which were in the area due to searches being conducted at a nearby address, when four gunshots were fired in the direction of the police vehicles, he added.
The gunman was “intentionally encouraged or assisted” by the accused, he told the judge presiding over the non-jury trial at Belfast Crown Court.
The murder weapon was found in June 2020.
The court also watched footage recovered from a production company that was making a documentary about Saoradh, a group seen by Northern Irish police as the political wing of the New IRA.
The court was told that the company’s crew left the riot scene in Derry/Londonderry shortly before the shots were fired.