Police Service of Northern Ireland charges man over murder in Derry last year

This article is more than 7 months old

This article is more than 7 months old

A 52-year-old man has been charged with the murder of Lyra McKee, who died after being shot during rioting in Derry last year.

He was also charged with possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life and professing to be a member of a proscribed organisation, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said.

The man, who was arrested on Tuesday, is due to appear at Derry magistrates court on Thursday.

McKee, 29, one of Northern Ireland’s most promising young journalists, was shot dead as she observed rioting in the Creggan area of Derry on 18 April last year. Her death was condemned by figures from across the political spectrum.

The PSNI said detectives from its major investigation team had charged a 52-year-old man with the murder of McKee, “who was shot dead by terrorists”.

The man, who is from the city, was taken to Musgrave serious crime suite in Belfast.

DS Jason Murphy said: “I have always said a number of individuals were involved with the gunman on the night Lyra was killed, and while today is significant for the investigation the quest for the evidence to bring the gunman to justice remains active and ongoing.”

The suspect was one of four men arrested on Tuesday in the investigation into the murder. He and the others – aged 20, 27 and 29 – were detained under the Terrorism Act.

Mourners at McKee’s funeral last year implored politicians to turn her murder into a turning point for Northern Ireland.

The writer, who was living in the city with her partner, Sara Canning, was also a prominent marriage equality campaigner and an articulate advocate of a new and more tolerant Northern Ireland.

Despite the revulsion at McKee’s murder, the New IRA and other dissident republican groups have persisted with sporadic attacks and intimidation, including a spate of recent incidents.

On Tuesday evening, posters showing Peadar Heffron, a Catholic police officer who lost a leg in a 2010 dissident republican bomb, appeared in parts of Derry.

The deputy chief constable, Mark Hamilton, described them as “cruel and disgusting”. They were removed on Wednesday.

The posters appeared to be part of a campaign against PSNI efforts to attract more Catholics to the force.

On Tuesday, police warned Sinn Féin that dissident republicans were planning attacks against Michelle O’Neill, the party’s vice-president and Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister, and her party colleague Gerry Kelly, a Policing Board member. The pair attended a police recruitment event last week.

Graffiti also appeared last week in Derry’s Creggan area, smearing a reporter who witnessed McKee’s murder. It branded Leona O’Neill a “tout”, or informer, and falsely linked her to MI5. The National Union of Journalists condemned the graffiti as “vile and dangerous”.

In an unrelated incident, the Continuity IRA admitted it tried to smuggle a bomb on to a lorry destined for an Irish Sea ferry on the day Britain left the European Union.