Court appearance for Lyra murder accused

Derry Magistrate’s Court heard today how a witness that told police that the man charged with the murder of journalist Lyra McKee had allegedly told her that it was carried out by ‘one of our member’ s sons’ will not be relied upon by the prosecution.
The revelation came during a bail application by Paul McIntyre (52) of Ballymagowan Park in Derry who is charged with the murder of Lyra McKee on April 18 last.
Defence counsel Eoghan Devlin told the court that during a High Court bail application the prosecution had claimed that one of their pieces of evidence was that McIntyre’s phone had been turned off for an hour and a half and then when turned on he had rung his co-accused Christopher Gillen.
He also said the prosecution had identified a woman who said McIntyre had said to her ‘it wasn’t me, it was one of our member’ s son.’
Mr Devlin added that the main thrust of the prosecution case was that MTV footage identified someone as Person A and that was the same person identified in still photos as Person Z namely McIntyre.
The barrister said in papers served on the defence there was no phone report and no mention of the female witness.
Prosecution counsel David Russell objected to the bail application on the grounds that there was no real change of circumstances since the High Court case last month.
He said phone records would be served on the defence but added that the evidence of the woman would not be relied upon.
He added that there was risk of interference if not directly from McIntyre from his associates.
He said there was a risk to the state from these activities.
Mr Devlin argued that his client had been on bail charged in connection with other matters on the same night and had not infringed his bail conditions.
He said the witnesses were mainly police officers so there was little risk of interference.
Deputy District Judge Stephen Keown said he believed there could be interference with witnesses and there was a risk of re-offending specific to McIntyre.
He refused bail and the defendant was remanded in custody to appear again on May 21.