![\"Lyra](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/001eaa6a-614.jpg\"\/)
\nLyra McKee died after being struck by a bullet during unrest in 2019<\/p>\n
The verdict in the murder trial of Lyra McKee was a “kick in the teeth” to her loved ones, the journalist\u2019s partner has said.<\/p>\n
Sara Canning said she hopes the 29-year-old\u2019s killer is haunted “every waking minute”.<\/p>\n
Ms McKee died after being hit by a bullet as she stood close to police vehicles while observing disturbances in the Creggan area of Derry on 18 April 2019.<\/p>\n
Paul McIntyre, aged 58, of Kells Walk in Derry; Peter Cavanagh, aged 38, of Mary Street; and Jordan Gareth Devine, aged 25, of Bishop Street, faced a joint enterprise murder charge.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Judge Smyth found all three not guilty of murder in the long-running, non-jury trial at Belfast Crown Court due to insufficient evidence in the prosecution case against the men, which was wholly circumstantial.<\/p>\n
Ms Canning described the moment she left the courtroom as the third not guilty verdict for murder was read.<\/p>\n
She told BBC\u2019s Good Morning Ulster: “We\u2019ve gone through a full two years of a trial. <\/p>\n
“We felt like we were going to be coming out of there having some degree of justice, and instead we came up with nothing, which is just a kick in the teeth.”<\/p>\n
\nLyra McKee died after being struck by a bullet during unrest in 2019<\/p>\n
She added: “The first not guilty came for murder, and if I\u2019m honest, I wasn\u2019t surprised.<\/p>\n
“Then the next not guilty came, so I sat until the last not guilty for murder came up, and then I left, because at that point there was nothing left for me to care about, that\u2019s the way that I look at it, so I left the courtroom at that point.<\/p>\n
“Gutted is the main word, because you\u2019re buoyed up with hope for that time, you have two years where you\u2019re just so hopeful, and then it\u2019s completely dashed and taken away.”<\/p>\n
Ms Canning said the case was “a massive waste of two years of our lives”.<\/p>\n
“It didn\u2019t bring Lyra any closer to justice,” she said.<\/p>\n
The prosecution\u2019s case was that the three men accused of murder had accompanied a lone gunman on the night Ms McKee was killed and encouraged or assisted him.<\/p>\n
The New IRA claimed responsibility for the death of Ms McKee, but the gunman who shot her has never been brought before court.<\/p>\n
Ms Canning said: “For me there was always something in the back of my head that the gunman isn\u2019t on the stand.<\/p>\n
“We were told from the beginning that the evidence on the gunman wasn\u2019t sufficient enough to bring charges.”<\/p>\n
Asked for her message for the man who killed Ms McKee, the journalist\u2019s partner said: “What you did was, you took the life of somebody who has contributed more to this world than you ever will.<\/p>\n
“She had more integrity in her wee finger than you will ever possess and you should be ashamed and I hope it haunts your every waking minute,” said Ms Canning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The verdict in the murder trial of Lyra McKee was a “kick in the teeth” to her loved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536955,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-536954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}