A single bullet to the head killed the Northern Ireland journalist and author Lyra McKee, a court has heard.
The injury caused immediate unconsciousness and rapid death, Christopher Johnston, a pathologist, told the trial of three men accused of McKee’s murder at Belfast crown court on Friday.
The 29-year-old was standing near police vehicles and observing a riot in the Creggan area of Derry on the night of 18 April 2019 when a gunman opened fire. The New IRA admitted responsibility.
Three men from Derry, Jordan Devine, 23, Paul McIntyre, 56, and Peter Cavanagh, 35, are accused of murder as well as possessing a firearm and ammunition, rioting and other related offences. They deny all charges.
McKee received six rounds of cardiopulmonary resuscitation to no avail, the court heard.
Johnston was the assistant state pathologist for Northern Ireland at the time of the shooting and performed the autopsy on McKee. Clinical notes provided to him said the victim had suffered a cardiac arrest and had no pulse when admitted to Altnagelvin hospital at 11.21pm on 18 April 2019, he said.
“The bullet struck the right side of her head above her ear which caused a bullet entry wound to the skin of the scalp. The bullet penetrated the right side of the skull and travelled in a horizontal plane from right to left,” Johnston said.
The bullet then struck the left side of her skull, he said. “The bullet had caused severe disruption to the vital sensors of the brain and would have caused immediate unconsciousness and very rapid death.”
Prosecutors say none of the three accused fired the fatal shot, but were engaged in a joint enterprise to encourage and assist the gunman.
On Thursday a police officer told the court he was in a police Land Rover during the disturbances in Creggan when he saw a figure with a mask and dark clothing point what appeared to be a handgun, after which he believed he heard at least four shots.
The officer said he became aware of movement to the left of his vehicle. “There was a group of women who were standing against the Land Rover immediately in front of me to my left. I saw one of them, I now know to be Lyra, she sort of stumbled and fell to the floor. And then there was just this horrendous screaming and someone shouts, ‘She has been shot.’”
Another officer testified on Thursday that police put McKee into a Land Rover and went to the hospital, and he tried to give first aid during the journey. “She was unresponsive. I was trying to maintain an airway. I was giving rescue breaths as we continued doing until we arrived at Altnagelvin accident and emergency.”
On the day of the shooting the TV presenter Reggie Yates was in Derry with an MTV crew filming republicans opposed to Northern Ireland’s peace process. The judge, Patricia Smyth, has watched unedited footage filmed by the crew.
Seven other men, all from Derry, are on trial for rioting, throwing petrol bombs and other charges. They are: Joseph Barr, 36, Jude Coffey, 26, William Elliott, 57, Joseph Campbell, 23, Patrick Gallagher, 32, Christopher Gillen, 43, and Kieran McCool, 55. They deny the charges.
