'I thought she was a child' - McKee trial witness

Journalist Lyra McKee was 29 when she died after being struck by a bullet while observing rioting in Creggan in April 2019

A former Londonderry councillor has told a murder trial how he saw a "perfect, small circle" on Lyra McKee’s temple just moments after hearing a gunshot.

Emmet Doyle, now a community activist in Derry, said that prior to the first of a number of shots being fired, he saw someone raise their right hand and shout “something along the lines of Up the IRA or victory to the IRA”.

Ms McKee had been watching a riot in the Creggan estate in Londonderry in April 2019, when she was shot and killed.

The New IRA admitted responsibility for the 29-year-old’s murder.

Jordan Devine, Peter Cavanagh and Paul McIntyre (left to right) are all accused of the murder of Lyra McKee

Three men from Derry are on trial at Belfast Crown Court accused of her murder - Jordan Devine, 23, of Bishop Street; Paul McIntyre, 56, of Kells Walk; and Peter Cavanagh, 35, of Mary Street.

On Tuesday, Mr Doyle told the court he was aware of a police search operation in Creggan on the night Ms McKee was killed.

He said a large number of young people were in the area and he felt the police operation “wouldn’t have been welcomed”.

Mr Doyle told the court he saw young people on Central Drive throwing bottles and stones at police Land Rovers.

A tipper truck and an Audi car had also been set on fire by rioters, he added, and fireworks were also being thrown.

When asked how the people standing on the footpath at Fanad Drive reacted to petrol bombs being thrown, Mr Doyle told the court: "I think that most people felt they were probably further enough away and anything that was thrown was directed at police vehicles so I don't necessarily think anyone felt particularly a threat."

Just before he heard the first gun shot, Mr Doyle told the court he saw someone at the corner of Fanad Drive and Central Drive raise their right hand and shout "something along the lines of Up the IRA or victory to the IRA, but the IRA was referenced”.

He said he saw other people join this man and that he saw "a small firearm" being produced.

Mr Doyle told the non-jury hearing as he stood on Fanad Drive he observed a person firing at police vehicles.

He said: "There was one shot fired. I remember seeing the flash and hearing a pop noise and I think I remember there was a gap between the next number of shots."

Mr Doyle recalled hearing "two or three" further shots.

He was then asked when he became aware that Ms McKee had been shot. He told the court: "I heard a scream, it would have been to the right of me.

"Once I heard the scream I moved up to where Lyra, who I didn't know, was lying between the front and back wheels of a Land Rover. She was lying just between those two wheels”.

He said Ms McKee’s partner Sara Canning “was on her knees at that point”.

'She was so small'

Mr Doyle added: “I got up beside Sara, I noticed... in first view I thought it was a child because she was so small and she was not necessarily curled up but not stretched out across the length of the Land Rover. Sara was very upset of course."

He said he initially thought Ms McKee had been hit by a stone.

"But I remember that Sara has moved Lyra's hair to one side, she was touching her face. I had tried to do the same and I noticed there was a perfect, small circle in her right temple."

Mr Doyle said the action of moving Ms McKee's hair left her blood on his hands.

He said he then took his coat off in a bid to put it under Ms McKee's head.

"I don't necessarily believe I got a chance to do that. I think people who had gathered around the area at the time,” Mr Doyle told the court.

He said one woman had “shouted quite loudly” that a child had been shot, before he and another person banged on the door of a police Land Rover.

The officer who opened the door, Mr Doyle said, “immediately understood what the situation was, that someone had been hurt”.

Mr Doyle said Ms McKee was lifted by a number of local residents and placed in the vehicle’s footwell “very quickly but carefully”.

"The two doors closed, the blue lights on the Land Rover were switched on and it took off at high speed down the street and down to the lower end of Fanad Drive and onto the hospital,” he said.

He recalled, the court heard, a "a bit of an argument" after the Land Rover left the area and then police officers setting up a cordon.

Mr Doyle added he left the area "no later than 20 minutes" after Lyra was shot.

Seven other men, also all from Derry, are on trial on charges which include rioting and throwing petrol bombs.

They are: Joseph Barr, 36, of Sandringham Drive; Jude Coffey, 26, of Gartan Square; William Elliott, 57, of Ballymagowan Gardens; Joseph Campbell, 23, of Gosheden Cottages; Patrick Gallagher, 32, of John Field Place; Christopher Gillen, 43, of Balbane Pass, and Kieran McCool, 55, of Ballymagowan Gardens.

All ten defendants have denied the charges against them.