More convictions could have been secured in the wake of the Lyra McKee murder but for serious breaches of rules around identifying witnesses, a former senior PSNI officer says.
The rules breach was described as “egregious” by the judge in the trial which saw no one convicted of murder.
Former Detective Superintendent Jason Murphy “fully expected” many of those accused of offences allegedly committed on the night of the fatal shooting of Ms McKee would be convicted, including those charged with murder.
Ten people were prosecuted, including three accused of joint enterprise murder, but seven were acquitted, two convicted of lesser offences and one died ahead of trial.
Lyra McKee was shot dead during rioting in Derry in 2019
Mr Murphy was speaking ahead of a three-part limited series on the investigation into the murder of the 29-year-old during riots in the Creggan area of the city in April, 2019. The documentary series begins on Wednesday on Channel 4.
The Murder Detective reportedly follows the investigation, with cameras capturing Mr Murphy and his team over the seven years between the murder and the judgment delivered in July.
Evidence from police officers identifying three masked individuals was dismissed by Mrs Justice Patricia Smyth because the “breaches of Code D have been so egregious that the purported recognitions cannot be considered reliable or admissible”.
In an interview with the Guardian newspaper, Mr Murphy said: “Unbeknown to me, one of my team had visited the office of some of [these] officers.”
He said that if the evidence had been considered, case outcomes “could have been” different against some defendants. But he added that there were “multiple strands the judge didn’t agree with”.
Code D covers the identification of suspects by police officers, including around the use of a controlled environment and members of the investigating team having no involvement in the process.
After the murder of Ms McKee, the PSNI issued a number of appeals to officers, attaching images of relevant individuals, both still and moving.
If an officer made what was believed to be a positive identification, they were required to make an entry, give a reason why, speak to nobody and then attend a controlled viewing to test reliability.
Family and friends of Lyra McKee outside Belfast Crown Court after judgment was handed down in relation to nine men in July
Picture by Jonathan Porter/PressEye
Three masked individuals were supposedly identified by officers, including at a controlled viewing in Waterside station. But it later emerged a group viewing took place in the company of one of the detectives involved in the investigation.
“There is no question that there were multiple breaches of Code D in the controlled viewing procedure and that the Waterside viewing seriously breached both its letter and spirit,” Justice Smyth wrote in a judgment delivered after the defence filed a ‘no case’ application.
She added: “However, I do not accept that the evidence establishes that the purpose was to falsely identify any individual or that any purported identification was made in bad faith.
“That does not in any way justify what can only be regarded as deeply disturbing behaviour by an experienced police officer who displayed an unhealthy desire to identify the perpetrators at any cost.”
Lyra McKee was killed during rioting in the Creggan in Derry in April, 2019
She was satisfied that the detective “and every officer present knew at the time, that it was in breach of Code D and that it ought not to have occurred”. Former DS Murphy did not know of the breach of the code, the judge noted.
The one time senior detective, who believes he has identified the individual who fired the gun that killed Ms McKee, said the culture of silence within the community has denied the murdered woman’s family justice.
Ms McKee’s sister Nichola Corner, speaking outside the Crown Court in July, said: “Over 150 people witnessed this event on the 18th of April 2019. Not one of those 150 people came forward with evidence.
“That culture of silence needs to stop in Northern Ireland, it is unfair to victims.”