Northern Irish police charge two over killing of journalist Lyra McKee

by Reuters
Thursday, 16 September 2021 22:36 GMT

FILE PHOTO: The service sheet for the funeral of murdered journalist Lyra McKee lies on a pew at St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast, Northern Ireland April 24, 2019. Brian Lawless/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

Image Caption and Rights Information
Lyra McKee was a passionate campaigner for LGBT rights in Northern Ireland, penning a 2014 letter to her teenage self about being gay, which was adapted into a short film.

BELFAST, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Northern Irish police said on Thursday they had charged two men with the 2019 murder of journalist Lyra McKee in Londonderry, whose death sparked outrage in the British-run province.

The men, aged 21 and 33, were also charged with rioting and possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said in a statement.

The men were due in court on Friday, the statement said.

The New IRA, one of a small number of groups that oppose the 1998 peace accord that ended three decades of conflict between opponents and supporters of British rule, said one of its members shot the 29-year-old reporter dead when they opened fire in the direction of police during a riot McKee was watching.

Police charged a 52-year-old man with McKee's murder last year, while saying more than one person was involved in the crime and the man who had fired the shot that killed her remained at large.

(Reporting by Amanda Ferguson and Conor Humphries; Editing by Karishma Singh)

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